Jurassic World: The Reality

By Fatima Tariq

Resurrecting the Woolly Mammoth

Bringing extinct creatures back to life. Is it possible? Recently, a new company, Colossal, has been established in the hopes of resurrecting woolly mammoths. According to scientists, bringing back woolly mammoths will help fight climate change.

A Woolly Mammal
source: https://www.dw.com/en/biotech-firm-says-it-can-resurrect-extinct-woolly-mammoth/a-59171358

Mammoths played the role of scraping the snow from the land due to their enormous size causing the air to reach the soil. They helped flatten the land by knocking down mosses and shrubs, and trees, allowing permafrost to occur (Neuman, 2021). Hence, with them back, the ecological void left by their absence could be filled.

CRISPR-Cas9 technology used on frozen Mammoth DNA remains allow scientists to imagine a possibility of resurrecting the woolly Mammoth. The tool will be used to splice bits of DNA into an Asian elephant (genetically similar to mammoths) resulting in an animal almost the same as a woolly mammoth (Neuman, 2021).

Resurrection of Dinosaurs

Now the question arises: if bringing back an extinct animal such as the mammoth appears possible through the use of gene editing technology, why can’t we bring back dinosaurs?

As seen in Jurassic World, a theme park is created to give various types of genetically engineered dinosaurs a habitat. Bits of dinosaur DNA were extracted from fossilized mosquitos allowing clones of dinosaurs to be created. The mere possibility of it in the movie intrigues the audience to wonder whether we will ever get to see these extraordinary enormous creatures walking the earth in our lifetime or not.

source: https://deadshirt.net/2015/06/18/verizon-wireless-presents-the-indominus-rexthe-symbology-of-jurassic-world/

In reality, finding intact DNA and extracting it is not as easy as it seems in science-fiction books and movies. DNA is extremely delicate, and tends to degrade over time. Studies have shown the half-life of DNA is around 521 years (McFadden, 2021).

Mosquitos containing dinosaur blood have been discovered in the past. However, most of the DNA extracted from them is already degraded. The oldest DNA that has been found is around a million years old while dinosaurs date back to over 66 million years (Griffin, 2018). The chances of ever finding intact DNA appear to be very slim.

A Fossilized Mosquito containing Dinosaur Blood
source: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/mosquito-dating-back-to-the-age-of-the-dinosaurs-has-been-found-preserved-in-amber-and-it-might-have-carried-malaria-119782/

Moreover, even if the mentioned DNA complication could be solved, it does not mean the revival of dinosaurs is guaranteed. Arranging these pieces of DNA in the correct order, or more importantly, knowing the correct order is where another barrier stands. The genetic makeup is currently unknown. There is no way to develop the animal inside the egg without the use of an actual dino egg. The movie used ostrich eggs but that would not work in reality as dinosaurs are genetically very different from ostriches.

A dinosaur hatching from an ostrich egg
source: https://jurassicoutpost.com/lets-talk-about-the-color-of-the-jurassic-park-velociraptors-theyre-not-green/

Other Possibilities

Interestingly enough, dinosaurs are still among us. Birds and dinosaurs share the same ancestor so technically, birds are also dinosaurs. Birds evolved from theropods, a group of meat-eating dinosaurs (Hendry). When the Cretaceous extinction event happened around 65.5 million years ago, only birds remained out of all the dinosaurs. With time, they kept evolving. It might be possible to genetically modify a bird’s DNA or recover bird DNA from a few hundred years ago. Coupled with the use of bird eggs under the correct conditions, we may just be able to bring back some form of dinosaurs in the future (Griffin, 2018).

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A Dinosaur Family Tree 
source: https://www.livescience.com/48008-birds-dinosaurs-no-missing-link.html

However, resurrection and cloning are not the only ways to bring them back. Reverse engineering allows researchers to genetically modify certain nucleic acid sequences and observe gene function by closely examining the changes. Scientists have suggested engineering the genome of a chicken in a way to make it look closer to a dinosaur i.e. modifying its physical characteristics (e.g. give it a tail etc.) (Ronson, 2016).

The Ethical Aspect

With the current advancements in biotechnology, the ethical issues keep rising. Altering gene sequence of animals crosses the boundaries of ethics in many cases. Most of the embryos which go through the genetic engineering process die. Moreover, genetic modification can potentially harm the animal. An experiment was conducted to make pigs grow faster by putting a human growth hormone in their genome. As a result, it made the transgenic pig arthritic, partially blind and infertile. With so much unknown, there is no guarantee as to how the experiments will turn out. Taking the risk puts both animals and humans in danger as many diseases from genetically engineered animals could easily spread to other animals and humans (Your Genome, 2021).

In Jurassic Park 1993, Dr. Malcolm said, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." Even if we were to somehow bring back dinosaurs, a lot of questions follow. Where would they live? What would they eat? Is it safe to resurrect these monstrous creatures?

And most importantly, is the world ready?

 

References:

McFadden, C. (2021, October 9). Dinosaurs are not coming back anytime soon, but what about the dodo? Interesting Engineering. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://interestingengineering.com/dinosaurs-how-well-can-we-resurrect-the-dead.

Griffin, D. (2018, June 6). Jurassic World: Can we really resurrect a dinosaur? Scientific American. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/jurassic-world-can-we-really-resurrect-a-dinosaur/.

Neuman, S. (2021, September 15). Scientists say they could bring back woolly mammoths. but maybe they shouldn't. NPR. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2021/09/14/1036884561/dna-resurrection-jurassic-park-woolly-mammoth.

Hendry, L. (n.d.). Why are birds the only surviving dinosaurs? Natural History Museum. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/why-are-birds-the-only-surviving-dinosaurs.html#:~:text=Birds%20evolved%20from%20a%20group,rex.&text=These%20ancient%20birds%20looked%20quite,they%20had%20much%20in%20common.

Ronson, J. (2016, November 29). Scientists are reverse engineering a dinosaur from a Chicken. Inverse. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.inverse.com/article/24268-dinosaur-chicken-gene-editing.

The Public Engagement team at the Wellcome Genome Campus. (2021, July 21). Is it ethical to genetically modify farm animals for agriculture? Your Genome. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.yourgenome.org/debates/is-it-ethical-to-genetically-modify-farm-animals-for-agriculture.