Could Jurassic Park Actually Happen?
ӰרJurassic ParkӰר - the quintessential dinosaur movie. Since its release in 1993, the film has spurred a at college campuses across the country. Because of the movie, earning your masterӰרs in paleontology or geology became increasingly popularӰרand dinosaurs? They are just about the coolest thing you could study. 
In the film (in case youӰרve been living in a cave for the past 30 years), scientific advancements aided the creation of a theme park full of living dinosaurs, which were genetically engineered from insect DNA extracted from amber.
Science today can make amazing things happen, but weӰרre not quite to the point of resurrecting dinosaurs (yet). However, the method of extracting DNA from rocks and minerals does exist and can lead us to other discoveries, including finding life on Mars.
, professor in the School of Geosciences and graduate coordinator for the masterӰרs in geology program, has experience in this particular area. For his PhD, he studied how long organisms can live buried in halite salt crystals and worked to extract the DNA fragments from the single-celled organisms trapped inside.
ӰרWhen salt crystals grow, they get little inclusions and they can get microbes trapped inside. ItӰרs like amber, or a diamond, because inclusions are basically imperfections,Ӱר he explains. ӰרWhat we found is they get really well preserved in salt and that we could extract the DNA from the buried salt, which is tens of thousands of years old, maybe 100,000 years oldӰרbut nowhere near how old dinosaurs are.Ӱר
Dinosaurs last went extinct 65 million years ago. Dr. Schubert says amber is porous and oxygen diffuses through it, which will break down the DNA trapped inside, so it probably couldnӰרt survive for millions of years.
According to Dr. Schubert, there is a possibility that DNA fragments can be preserved for millions of years in salt crystals, because oxygen doesnӰרt diffuse through salt. His research determined that researchers might be able to extract evidence of water and life on Mars if a probe were to bring back samples.
But, unfortunately that same process canӰרt be applied to bringing dinosaurs back to life.
ӰרSalt might be better for preserving DNA, but youӰרre not likely to get T-rex DNA in a salt crystal,Ӱר Dr. Schubert quipped.
ӰרThe problem is this DNA (in salt crystals) will be really fragmented and really small. To sequence an organism you need the whole genome, and to get something like that is highly unlikely,Ӱר he says. ӰרAs this DNA is sitting around in the environment or a crystal, itӰרs breaking down. You would expect to find very small fragments of DNA, so you would find a base length of DNA preserved, but not a whole genome from 65 million years ago.
ӰרThe ability to sequence something is there Ӱר they could take the DNA, figure out what it was, plot it, figure out what it was related to, but they canӰרt bring it back to life with current technologies.Ӱר
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