The blockbuster film "Jurassic Park" popularized the idea of extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber. This concept is closer to reality than most people realize.
Scientists have attempted to retrieve DNA from amber inclusions for years. They have successfully extracted DNA from amber, but the DNA is unusable. The main obstacle? Time. DNA degrades rapidly after death, and even under the ideal preservation conditions offered by amber, millions of years take their toll.
Research in this area are ongoing. Scientists are constantly refining extraction techniques and exploring the limits of DNA preservation. Who knows, maybe one day the dream of Jurassic Park will be a reality. But for now, the DNA locked away in amber remains unusable until we can improve our techniques.
Here is an example of a mosquito in amber from Myanmar. This amber is from the dinosaur age. It is a cretaceous era amber, 100 million years old.
Join our live feeds on TikTok to get your own piece!
Comments