Steven Spielberg's film, Jurassic Park, builds on a quite thrilling idea: that DNA from an extinct dinosaur can be found in a mosquito preserved in amber. This DNA could then be used to recreate the species.
While theoretically possible, it has been practically impossible to obtain DNA from an extinct dinosaur species so far. The idea with preservation in amber has its merits, amber definitely has preservative qualities - but it preserves the mosquito, hardly DNA it has ingested. What we could obtain from a mosquito in amber (if any DNA at all) would probably be limited to DNA from the mosquito or from the tree from which the resin (amber) was derived.
Attempts have been made to get soft tissue from dinosaurs by dissolving fossilised bone in acid. This can be possible because acid dissolves minerals but not proteins. However, if you don't happen to own dinosaur bones yourself, it is not easy to get permission to dissolve them, since they are considered scientifically too valuable. Needless to say, after being dissolved, they are gone forever. The attempts that have been made, however, proved successful; one found small amounts of soft tissue and could identify the presence of proteins. But no DNA!
It appears as if DNA breaks down too quickly in nature.
There is, however, one way which could lead to recreation of a living dinosaur without the findings of old DNA, at least in theory. That is to start with a bird, which is an evolved dinosaur, and then activate dormant genes from its past. That is called atavism activation. For instance, make it grow a tail and teeth. Birds have genes for both, they are just inactive. Indeed, birds, as all organisms, carry the genes from all their ancestors.
With this method, it should, at least in theory, be possible to get as far back as to a dinosaur by activating the relevant genes. Although this research is still in its infancy, there are scientific projects making experiments in that direction.
Read also: "How Can We Know Anything about Dinosaurs?"
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Very well written post! Keep doing what you are doing, waiting for new blogs :)