Jurassic Park made many fans believe that bringing an old species back to life using ancient DNA perfectly preserved was possible. Decades later, the first real clone was born, but not a dinosaur. Scientists were able to bring back the dire wolf, an extinct species that went extinct over 12,000 years ago. While the replication was possible due to the actual wolves we have in the world today, this process is not possible with the biggest reptiles in history, so far. However, scientists discovered a perfectly preserved embryo.
Extinct animals are being cloned: It won’t happen with dinosaurs
The idea of having an egg with an embryo in perfect condition over 60 million years after the it went extinct looks like it came straight out of the first Jurassic Park movie. While that movie was the first to rely on animatronics movement and CGI, it also laid the foundation for future research involving cloning and save species from extinction. The dire wolf is just the first one, and while there are only two in the world, in the future, a whole pack could survive.
The closest thing we have to dinosaurs nowadays are birds. While only a few species dominated the skies millions of years ago, before humans started walking on Earth, they are directly related to the colossal creatures that were at the top of the food chain. One of the reasons that supports this theory is the embryo found in perfect conditions is in a curled posture, like birds stay inside an egg. Not much can be done since the egg cannot be cracked, but scientists are studying the possibilities.
Not even in Jurassic Park did this happened
A fossilized dinosaur embryo, still tucked inside its egg, has given scientists a new look at how birds are connected to these past creatures. The embryo, nicknamed Baby Yingliang, is an oviraptorosaur that lived between 72 and 66 million years ago. It was found in Ganzhou, southern China, after the egg had been sitting in storage for nearly two decades. Another one was found in Missouri over a month later – and some underwater fossils are being unveiled as well.
What makes this find unusual is the embryo’s position. Its head rests below the body, feet on each side, and its back curled towards the wider end of the egg. That posture, called “tucking,” is seen today in bird embryos and helps them hatch successfully. Until now, it wasn’t clear whether dinosaurs may have done the same.
Scientists don’t know why the egg never hatched
Why the embryo never hatched remains a mystery. Scientists point to possible causes such as changes in the environment, predators, or even natural defects. Either way, it left behind a rare snapshot of life that never got to take its first breath. Dinosaur eggs are already hard to come by, and ones with well-preserved embryos are even rarer. Finds like this one allow researchers to piece together how it grew, reproduced, and eventually gave rise to the birds we see around us.
This dinosaur will never born: It’s fossilized
Pre-historical life findings like these are rare. It is not every day a situation like Jurassic Park happens. In this case, we won’t be able to clone the embryo and from that moment start using the DNA of other animals to generate new species, like it was done in the movie. An important part of the discovery is that it cannot be born because it is fossilized. While discovering fossils are often associated with these giant reptiles that walked on Earth millions of years ago, other fossils have been popping up in the U.S., far from Missouri and among the most deep rocky structures in the world.