• Question: could you clone a t-rex

    Asked by cat 123 to Andrew, Jade, Jessica, Kevin, Lynn on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Jess Wade

      Jess Wade answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Hey Cat, This is kind of a jurasic park type idea. We find some tree resin containing dinsoaur blood dna, then clone it? We’ve found a bit of good DNA using super complicated extraction techniques. It is very well preserved because it is so cold in the arctic the DNA is almost in tact! But it is still in a super bad condition, and doesn’t have all of the genes we need to build a proper animal. We need lots and lots of sets of genes to try to recreate something, so the tiny fragments we find are probably not enough.

    • Photo: Jade Owen

      Jade Owen answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      If you could find some good quality DNA of a T-Rex you might be able – however you would have to find an animal big enough to lay the egg!

      One more realistic ‘back from extinction’ animal would be the woolly mammoth. Some scientists are trying to find some really good DNA from a frozen specimen to use with elephants – their living day nearest relatives.

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