A Biotech Scientist Answers the Question: "Is JURASSIC WORLD Possible?"

By Glenn Petrie, Ph.D.
Senior Scientific Advisor
ABC Laboratories
www.abclabs.com

As a boy I was fascinated with dinosaurs. But while most children grew out of this by 7 or 8, I remained engrossed in all things “saurus”. As I started my career in biotechnology, I was particularly interested in Michael Crichton’s book Jurassic Park. I read it in a single sitting and went to the first showing when the movie was released. Now that JURASSIC WORLD is a worldwide phenomenon, interest in reviving extinct species, or de-extinction, has been brought to the forefront. But could JURASSIC WORLD actually be possible? The short answer is no. DNA is the key to any attempts at de-extinction, but while stable, it is not stable for millions of years. Therefore, since dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, there is no viable DNA

However, DNA can survive tens of thousands of years in the right environment, particularly frozen. There are numerous articles in both the scientific and popular literature regarding bringing Wooly Mammoths back to life. Frozen carcasses discovered in Russia have yielded partially intact DNA. JURASSIC WORLD scientists use the bottom-up technique, i.e. start with a fairly complete genome and plug the gaps with that of similar species. In reality the top-down approach is more likely since only partial DNA genomes have been recovered. Scientists are attempting to modify elephant DNA with some of the mammoth’s. The goal is to obtain a hybrid, an elephant with some mammoth traits. With the explosion in biotechnology, one could envision a Pleistocene Park. Rather than dinosaurs it would be populated with animals from the Pleistocene era, ~10,000 years ago. Among the possible exhibits could be Wooly Mammoths, Saber Tooth Cats, Wooly Rhinoceros, Giant Ground Sloths and the Giant Short-faced Bear. Think of the La Brea Tar Pits brought to life.

Even if this is possible, should it be attempted (“But John, if Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.”)? While no one is seriously proposing de-extinction as a theme park, many are interested in using this technology to increase biodiversity and bring back species that humans destroyed, e.g. passenger pigeon, Steller seal, Tasmanian tiger and the dodo. Since there are numerous specimens of these species throughout the museums of the world, there is a reasonable chance of success. However, many ecologists see this as a zero sum game. They believe that any money spent on de-extinction represents less money for efforts to save endangered species; protection, habitat, etc. There may be a middle ground in which de-extinction methods could be used with endangered species to increase genomic diversity and increase the chances for a healthy population.

I look forward to following the latest developments in this exciting field and will provide an update with the release of JURASSIC WORLD 2.

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