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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DNA breaks down over time. We could theoretically make a mammoth from ~10000 years ago because we found a decent example preserved in the ice, but even that would be tricky.
The half life if DNA is 521 years, so in that mammoth, only 1 ten thousandth of a percent of DNA would be intact. The only way we would have a chance is because we’d have a whole mammoth worth of DNA to start with.
Fossils also aren’t organic at all. A fossil means that something died, fell into sediment, was buried rather quickly, and that sediment hardened around them. Over time, the bones decayed, leaving a void that was then filled with new sediment, so the structure was preserved because the two samples hardened at two different times.
Jurassic Park wouldn’t work because
1. There is so little DNA in the blood sucked out by a mosquito
2. You wouldn’t be able to tell which dinosaur is which
3. The DNA would have broken down long ago
The prevailing theory on what actually happened in the story is that Dr. Hammond was genetically modifying chickens and other birds to recreate dinosaurs, and the amber was a cover story. That also explains why the dinosaurs didn’t have feathers because he was modeling then off of what we thought dinosaurs looked like at the time.
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