Could we build Jurassic Park?
AS SCIENCE ADVANCES, WE MAY FIND BRINGING DINOSAURS BACK TO LIFE IS A REALISTIC PROSPECT
It’s nearly 30 years since the cult film came to cinemas: could today’s technology allow us to build a dinosaur zoo?
Welcome to Jurassic Park. As we open the gates to this zoo of previously extinct creatures, how would you expect the dinosaurs behind them to look? For those who have read or watched Jurassic Park, the image of a dinosaur may have already been planted in your mind. Your perception might be plagued by the gruesome scenes of park rangers becoming easy meals, or the film’s iconic theme tune might resonate in your head as you envisage herds of long-necked beasts parading across the land. With great diversity between species, the thrill of this dinosaur park cannot be denied. But what about its accuracy?
When Michael Crichton first conceived the Jurassic Park story in the late 1980s, one of the last things he wrote was perhaps the most significant. How would the scientists in the story obtain the DNA needed to create a theme park of dinosaurs? This would be the key to the entire plot, giving the story a feeling of scientific realism. Eventually, Crichton was inspired by a scientific paper he read. The paper referenced a fly that had been found preserved inside hardened tree resin. Somehow, at the end of its life, the fly had ended up submerged in this resin time capsule. This was not just the stroke of genius that led to the creation of this fictional land, but a real-life discovery. Together the story of Jurassic Park and the science at the centre of the tale would inspire the next generation of palaeontologists, opening the world’s imagination to dinosaurs.
What might fascinate people most about dinosaurs is the multitude of unanswered questions, with only hints at their dominance before our time. What did dinosaurs really look like, and how did their unique appendages assist them as they scoured the land in diverse groups?
As humans have never lived alongside dinosaurs, nobody holds the answers to some of the questions asked by children and adults alike. We continue to learn more about dinosaurs as interest and research grows – and with new fossil finds – and we have now discovered more than 700 dinosaur species worldwide, but as time passes by, it separates these ancient beasts further from us into the past.
Scientists are currently working to reverse extinction by bringing animals that vanished from Earth long ago back into our lives. By editing the genetic code in the DNA of extinct animals’ closest living relatives, scientists can slowly build backwards and manipulate a model of the species’ DNA. One of the most high-profile cases involves the woolly mammoth, which died out around 4,000 years ago. Their DNA is preserved in the frozen soil of Siberia, so some scientists are working on a project to combine these fragments of genetic code with that of living elephants. There might be thousands of years separating these species – and over 60 million years for dinosaurs – but if scientists are successful in producing these extinct species, this could be a stepping stone towards the beginning of a true Jurassic Park.