Cloning Dinosaurs – Myth or Near Reality?

And it is that just as the famous Dolly the sheep was cloned, which was talked about so much in its day, why not do it with the dinosaurs and clone them so that they can live with us?

But before we go crazy and have to run away in front of a T-Rex, we should ask ourselves if it would be ethically and morally correct, a question that has been debated since the sheep was cloned regarding cloning human beings; which would not devour us as soon as they were seen, for example.

Surely you were expecting another reasoning… I’m giving you that right now and it is that perhaps before continuing to advance in research, which is already being carried out, on how dinosaurs could be cloned and brought back to life, questions would have to be answered What:

• Why should dinosaurs be cloned? It would be the fastest way to end our reign as a species and we would become part of the food pyramid.
• Where would they fit in today’s food chain? It is clear that at the top, let’s see who faces a Velociraptor, for example, that as soon as you take two steps you already have it on your back. Come on! Not even Usain Bolt, being the fastest runner in the world, would have anything to do with one of these.
• What would they give us? Yes, what would they bring us, man does nothing if he is not going to get a clear benefit in return, in this case it could be considered that it would be the “ego of having brought the dinosaurs to life”, but what would happen afterwards? How would we keep them and where?
• And since we are talking about cloning Why not clone other recently extinct species that were from our era? This would perhaps make much more sense and they would return to their space and mission, of which we would surely not be in such danger as to be the next on the menu and therefore the next to become extinct.

I could go on asking many more questions, from which I would not come up with a positive and, above all, convincing reason, justifying the fact of bringing these giants back to life. Because what is clear is that the admiration felt for them is not an objective and sufficient reason to clone them, or do you think it is?

And I don’t think that as a justification it could be valid that if dinosaurs were cloned, many of the suppositions and speculations about dinosaurs would be confirmed or not confirmed, such as: if they were warm-blooded or cold-blooded, how long they lived, how cared for their young, if they were migratory animals, etc.

The study of dinosaur cloning

The fact is that perhaps it is not so far from being able to clone dinosaurs, but not as you are thinking.

Let’s go to the beginning of the studies

A few years ago in North America, paleontologists discovered a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. While looking for all the bones for reconstruction, they were very surprised to find in the femur some soft tissues that were not fossilized. Tissues with which DNA samples could be extracted, with which almost all the genetic information necessary for cloning would be obtained.

Of course, considering that only T-Rex tissue has been found, only this one could be cloned. The rest of the species found are fossils, which implies that more than 90% of the genetic information of each one of them is lost and therefore they could not be cloned.

Although studies continue to be carried out to clone dinosaurs and make one of humanity’s dreams come true, it has been discovered that DNA has a half life of about 521 years. Taking into account that the T-Rex found lived about 75 billion years ago, the aforementioned option is ruled out.

In the same way, the option of extracting blood from a mosquito fossilized in amber is ruled out, as happened in the Jurassic Park movie.

According to the scientist Bryan Nelson, in addition to the “short life” of DNA, many coincidences would have to occur at the same time for it to be carried out (I am referring to extracting the blood of the mosquito) because it would be necessary to find in perfect conditions of fossilization a female mosquito that had just sucked blood and that just with a full belly remained inside the amber, it fossilized and was later found, in addition to finding out what species or species is the blood that it was digesting at that time… come on! That it is easier to see all the planets aligned, followed by a solar or lunar eclipse.

So goodbye to the idea of ​​living a Jurassic Park and going to visit a T-Rex in the zoo. Can you imagine it? Everyone there throwing legs of lamb, hehe!

But we continue with the studies and advances on cloning after this little T-Rex joke… Although dinosaurs cannot be cloned as they were, at least with the means available today, that option must be ruled out, yes, they continue to study and consider how to clone dinosaurs, but this time the cloning would be from their heirs the birds and the other great species to clone would be the mammoths. I’ll explain how to do it below.

Mammoth cloning

Mammoths belong to the Asian elephant family and it would be with the help of these and a method of genetic manipulation called “CRISPR” that the mammoth would come to life.

Logically it would not be exactly the same, because as we say, the intervention of the current Asian elephant is necessary, so it would be more like this one. Yes indeed, would have the most recognizable characteristics of mammoths such as thick fur, adipose layer and small ears.

The idea of cloning the mammoth is to integrate it into a natural park located in Siberia known as “Pleistocene Park”where the conditions of the Ice Age have been recreated and where there are already bison, horses, musk oxen, reindeer, elk and other similar species.

And how would the mammoth be cloned?

Well, before answering the question, I am going to explain to you what is the CRISPR technology with which this cloning would be carried out.

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, in Spanish “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. This means that With this technique we can “edit or correct” the genome of any cellincluding the human. Its discoverer was Francis Mojica, a researcher at the University of Alicante; although it was two French women who received the Princess of Asturias Award for research in 2015 for the development of this technology.

In summary, so that we all understand, With this genetic technology, the frozen cells of mammoths would be manipulated and an elephant would be fertilized.hence what I said earlier that it would not be exactly a mammoth because it would inherit genes and characteristics of the current elephant.

If they dare to carry it out, it is because successful tests have already been carried out with frozen mouse cells, carried out by the Japanese Teruhiko Wakayama in 2008.

It would be this Japanese researcher along with an international team of researchers who would finally carry out such a feat.

The fact is that the date for the first mammoth was raised in 2016 and until now I have not heard anything about there being a mammoth in Siberia. Everything is that in this year 2017 give the great news. If so, it would be the beginning of the awakening of another 22 species that are frozen, among them the saber-toothed tiger or the Smilodon Fatalis.

Clone a dinosaur from birds

The idea of ​​cloning a dinosaur from birds comes nothing more and nothing less than by Jack Hornerone of the most prestigious paleontologists in the world who belongs to the University of the State of Montana.

Jack Horner inspired, assisted and actively participated in all 4 Steven Spielberg Jurassic Park films. He is the one who indicated at all times what the dinosaurs were like and how they acted in reality, except for some “small” changes, such as the feathers of the Velociraptors that “disappeared” and some other detail that conflicted with the plot of the film.

The fact is that now it has been proposed that the dinosaurs be recovered from the birds, as these are the direct descendants.

The objective is that from the embryo of a chicken and through genetic engineering find the genes that would turn it into a dinosaur.

Well, at first it would not be a dinosaur as such, but it would be a totally new species that Horner baptizes as the “chickensaur” or the “dinochick”.

I don’t know which of the two names to stick with so that when it is named it doesn’t seem like a total tease. Because it is true that they are studying it and that they have already found the gene for the hen to have teeth; now they are looking for the gene that would give them claws instead of wings and finally they would look for the gene for size.

And let it be known that they are not modifying genes but are reactivating atavistic genes from the DNA for them to show up again. It is like going back in evolution and from there finding the dinosaur that all birds carry within in their DNA; although in this case, if the hen has been chosen, it is because, in addition to being a common bird, its entire genome is perfectly known.

It is assumed that if all goes well by the end of this year or the beginning of 2018 we will meet the first “chickensaur”, which in principle will be the same size as the conventional chicken except that it will have teeth and claws.

If not, then we will have to wait about two more years to see it. All this according to the forecasts of Horner himself, who also stated that the next challenge will be to make it bigger and then, well, “resurrect” some theropod, which after all are the ancestors of birds, all of them walked on their hind legs, and yes, all of them were carnivores, although according to him, tyrannosaurs or velociraptors that run around freely are not going to be cloned.

Conclution

If reality is stranger than fiction on many occasions, haven’t we learned anything from all the Jurassic Park movies or from the series about dinosaurs that suddenly appear in our time through a portal that mysteriously opens and ends up wreaking havoc?

Really not? Look, everything starts out very nice, like the research that is being carried out now, whether it be the “chickensaur” or the mammoth, but then everything goes wrong. Indeed, there is the theory of chaos, the butterfly effect or the simple logic of how you are going to care for and raise a hen with teeth and claws?

If you saw the last installment of Jurassic World when they talked about the hybrid dinosaur created from nothing, one of the questions they asked was “Does the animal know what it is and what it is for?”

And following this logic, would you know how to take care of something that you don’t know why you created it? Do you know what and how a chicken with teeth and claws will evolve into? And if you want to make it bigger, first ask yourself why and then how it will affect you.

Dogs, for example, have been selected to make the most of their best qualities, in addition to distinguishing them even more between beauty dogs or working dogs, but at all times we know and know that they are dogs and what they are for and what they are for. More importantly, we know how to take care of them.

These are such basic questions that scientists should ask themselves first, and if not, they should be asked by the people around them, right?

… And you do you think?