• Question: Can we use DNA to recreate extinct/threatened animals, like dinosaurs or the white rhino? Like if we had a bit of a dinosaur’s DNA could we make a dinsaur like in Jurassic Park?

    Asked by anon-195755 to Reka, Gemma, Anthony on 18 Jan 2019. This question was also asked by anon-195886.
    • Photo: Reka Nagy

      Reka Nagy answered on 18 Jan 2019:


      That’s a great question! Let’s consider several things about it:

      – To do cloning you need access to complete DNA sequences. Since DNA degrades over time, we have not yet been able to find an intact dinosaur genome, so this is the first stumbling block to making Jurassic Park a reality.

      Now let’s assume that we DID manage to find a complete genome.
      – This genome needs to be inserted into a cell that has the right molecules/machineries to drive the expression of the right genes in the right place and time to lead to the development of the dinosaur. These cells died together with the dinosaurs, so we’ll never be able to reconstruct what a real dinosaur cell must have contained. So while the DNA is there, we don’t know which parts of it were being used and in what way to actually lead to a dinosaur being made.

      Going one step further, let’s imagine that we actually DID manage to somehow clone a dinosaur. Is it ethical to do so?
      – What is it going to eat? It’s likely that (at least some of) the things it would have eaten no longer exist.
      – What habitat would it live in? Given that even today, many animal species can only thrive in a very specific habitat, there might not be any places left on earth that resemble the places that dinosaur’s ancestors used to roam
      – How could it adapt and survive? Given that we used one genome to recreate it, it means that any dinosaur we create is going to be genetically identical to all the rest we manage to make – which means that any negative mutations it has are very quickly going to make themselves known, and concentrate inside any offspring they may have – and they would lose fitness and die out all over again.

      These illustrate just some of the challenges that stand in our way of bringing the dinosaurs back.

      Now the white rhino is a very different example, however, since we probably do have access to good quality DNA, and it still has close living relatives (other species of rhino), which means we might be able to use the cells from these still-living rhinos as the host for the white rhino genome. So I think that in theory, it would be possible to clone them – the question is, would they be hunted to extinction all over again if we did bring them back? There’s the human element to consider as well.

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