Everything is not so optimistic: why "Jurassic Park" is impossible in real life

According to the script of the famous film, scientists managed to clone various types of dinosaurs and create a Jurassic park within a single island. Against the backdrop of the successes of geneticists in decoding genes and animal cloning, many dinosaur fans are in the longing for a miracle. But their hopes are not destined to come true.

Dinosaurs that belonged to the reptile class lived on our planet in the Mesozoic era. The heyday of these animal species, the remains of which were found on all continents, occurred just in the Jurassic period, and at the end of the Cretaceous period they almost never met on Earth.

Based on the found dinosaur remains, paleontologists concluded that the superorder of the dinosaurs consisted of more than 1000 species. In some cases, scientists have discovered well-preserved parts of the skeleton and dinosaur eggs.

In recent years, genetics have made a real breakthrough in the field of decoding the DNA of various animals. With new technologies, it has become possible to clone long-extinct animal species. For example, Japanese geneticists said that mammoths, extinct inhabitants of the northern latitudes of the Pleistocene era, would appear in the zoos of the planet soon.

But with dinosaurs, everything was not so simple. The fact is that over time, the DNA molecule undergoes destruction, it, like all living things, has a finite lifespan. As scientists have found out, DNA molecules are best preserved at low temperatures. That is why mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and woolly rhinos, whose fabrics were found in permafrost, have every chance of resurrection.

Genetics found that at a temperature of + 13 ° C the half-life of a DNA molecule is 521 years, and a complete destruction of the DNA molecule under such conditions will occur in 1042 years. But the material lying under conditions of negative temperatures (about -5ºС) can save DNA for 3.4 million years (half-life) and about 7 million years until complete destruction. But in the case of dinosaurs, this, unfortunately, is not enough. Indeed, the “youngest” of the found remains of extinct reptiles is at least 65 million years old, and therefore it is not possible to isolate viable DNA fragments from them. That is why it will not be possible to resurrect dinosaurs even with the help of the most modern technologies.