Why is it not possible to make a complete living organism from the samples/remains found from millions of years ago?
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Putting aside that the DNA would be degraded to shit by now, there’s the issue that even if we have a perfect DNA sequence of a dinosaur there’s no way to bring it to life. We can’t just input the DNA code into a printer and generate the organism.
The closest possibility would be to clone it in an existing organism by replacing the host organism’s embryonic DNA with the dinosaur DNA, assuming you have viable dinosaur cells with actual intact nucleuses. But even if you manage that, there’s no guarantee that the embryonic development will succeed, or that the dino DNA is compatible with whatever organism you use. To put it overly simply, while DNA is a universal “language” across all organisms, some segments of code in the DNA of specific organisms will only “make sense” to the right organism. Like an elephant DNA may have certain lines of DNA that result in certain reactions that require hormones found in elephants, so you can’t just try to clone in a rhino for example. It’s why the scientists looking to clone and bring back the mammoth have their best shot with the modern elephants, but even then it’s not a guarantee. And if it does work, one could argue that it’s not a true mammoth because the embryonic development process has already been hybridised with the elephant’s.
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