Thaindian News

By Ranjan Bhaduri
May 31, (THAINDIAN NEWS) It is quite nice to see pre-historic creatures coming alive on silver screen in sci-fi flicks like ‘Jurassic Park’. However, we all know they are nothing but CGI and in the 21st century one cannot see a mammoth walking up the streets or a Terodactyl flying over rooftops! However, with the scientists making remarkable progress in the sphere of genetics and cloning with the time the possibility cannot be ruled out totally. CBS has recently shown a program on 60 Minutes on prehistoric creatures that have become extinct millions of years back. However, attempts are on to bring them back to life using DNA mapping.

The scientists doing research on the topic think that animal hairs can be analyzed for getting trace of their DNAs. The scientists were able to get sufficient DNA fragments to understand the genetic sequence of a mammoth. That is how the wooly mammoth became the first extinct species to get its genome decoded. However, the resurrection of the animals still remains a challenge to scientists. Genetic engineering is an option and even with its application creating such animals in lab is quite difficult. There are a number of extinct animals that are still found frozen which is good as it keeps the DNA intact.

However, for effective cloning of such pre historic animals getting the full DNA would not suffice. Getting a mammoth cell is not that easy. Dr. Betsy Dresser is a scientist who is doing research in this domain. She admits that even after years of research and advancements in cloning the hardships remain and creating an animal out of a few cells is not something that can be achieved easily.