Our future depends on nature, but we are not doing enough to protect our life support system. Now we're wondering if you can help us.Įvery year, more people are reading our articles to learn about the challenges facing the natural world. or that it helped you learn something new. Or you might do it with crocodile DNA, because they share a common ancestor.' If you were going to do it, you'd use bird DNA, because birds are dinosaurs. 'But if you did have the whole genome and you were going to fill the holes in fragments, then you definitely wouldn't do it with frogs, because frogs are amphibians. Without the full genome, it would be impossible to tell which parts of the DNA have been found and therefore impossible to fill the gaps to build a whole animal. But the problem is that you don't know where the holes are if you don't have the whole genome,' explains Susie.Ī genome is the complete set of DNA of a living thing. They identified where the holes are and filled them with frog DNA. 'In Jurassic Park, they say that they found fragmented DNA. If dinosaur DNA were found, what happens next? If you work at Jurassic Park's genetic engineering facility you simply combine it with frog DNA and recreate an extinct reptile. DNA 66 times older would have to be found to get to the age of dinosaurs. DNA has to be handled under strictly controlled conditions.Ĭurrently the oldest DNA to have been found is around one million years old, although it is possibly younger. Sunlight has negative effects and water can also accelerate deterioration. 'Even if you find blood or soft tissue, you don't necessarily find DNA.'Īncient DNA has so far been recovered from permafrost, as well as from subfossils - bones or body parts that have not yet fossilised.īut DNA is vulnerable and breaks down rapidly. 'We sectioned the cells using a focused ion beam, which is like a really high-powered, ultra-small knife and we stained the nuclei to see if there was any DNA - but we didn't find anything. We compared it with red blood cells from birds and it showed some morphological similarities. The blood cells have nuclei and you don't find those in mammals, so it must be a reptilian red blood cell. 'We don't think it is from modern contamination. In 2015, Susie and her colleagues discovered what they interpreted to be red blood cells inside a Cretaceous dinosaur fossil bone. So even if a dinosaur's blood was found inside an ancient insect, an opportunity to recreate the reptile from it isn't guaranteed. When under specific circumstances blood does preserve, it doesn't mean that scientists will find DNA in it. 'The idea that we may one day find a mosquito or biting fly from the Mesozoic with some parts of the blood still preserved is not outrageous,' says Susie.
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