News reports about the preserved embryo of a dinosaur discovered as a fossilized egg in China just made headlines which led many to wonder about the feasibility of recreating the prehistoric animals from their DNA. Is it possible to have a real-life Jurassic Park soon?
In an article published on The Conversation in August 2021, Professor Emeritus of Paleontology at the Ohio State University William Ausich explained that the first major problem would be getting the DNA because it is inclined to deteriorate and eventually disintegrate after approximately seven million years.
He added, sounds "like a long time ago," although the death of the last dinosaur happened at the end of the Cretaceous Period, which was more than 65 million years back.
Dinosaur DNA
Ausich also said, "dig up a fossil today, and any dinosaur DNA within would have long since fallen apart." The professor described what could transpire next in a hypothetical scenario. According to him, it is still not a straightforward process because they need to ensure that they have all of the DNA.
"Just for fun," he continued, "let's imagine" that in some way, sometime in the future, researchers came up with remain of dinosaur DNA. With just fragments, researchers are still unable to develop a complete dinosaur, a similar report from The Ohio State University specified.
Instead, they would need to combine the remnants with the DNA of modern-day animals to develop a living creature.
However, the new organism could not be considered an actual dinosaur. Instead, it would be called a "hybrid," a mixture of dinosaurs, and most possible, a reptile or bird.
Fossilized Dinosaur Egg Discovery
It appears that the fossilized dinosaur egg discovery in Ganzhou, southern China, will not lead to a cloned dinosaur anytime soon.
The egg, as earlier reported, is one of the most intact dinosaur embryos ever excavated, despite being believed to be from 72 million to 66 million years old.
The skeleton led researchers to conclude that the discovery was an oviraptorid, essentially a bird-type two-legged dinosaur.
It was initially discovered in Shahe Industrial Park in 2000. It was then donated to Yinggliang Stone Natural History Museum in Nan'an. However, it had been collecting dust in a storeroom until 2015, when a museum staff member noticed bones that were sticking out of the shell.
Sensing the egg's content could be worth exploring, the researchers got in touch with experts from the University of Birmingham, who have just had the study about their findings published.
It is indeed a notable discovery. However, plans about a real-life dinosaur theme park should be put on ice for now.
Discussing if trying to make a hybrid dinosaur with remnants of DNA was a specifically smart idea, explained Ausich adding, after all, researchers in the Jurassic movies had tried such an idea.
Related information about recreating a dinosaur embryo is shown on Unexplained Mysteries' YouTube video below:
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