Welcome to Jurassic World.
In real life.
Let’s bring back
some of the most dangerous creatures
to ever roam the Earth.
What could go wrong?
Right?
In the book and subsequent
movie saga of Jurassic Park,
scientists find DNA from dinosaur blood
preserved inside of a fossilized mosquito.
Then, they clone a whole theme park's-worth
of prehistoric creatures.
And, of course, all hell breaks loose.
What you might not know is that
the story was inspired by real-life events.
In 1982, scientists discovered a 40 million-year-old fly
mummified in amber.
And that's where the non-fiction drama ends
and author Michael Crichton's science fiction begins.
But it's not the only discovery that has raised the question
of whether you could bring dinosaurs back from extinction.
Components of dinosaur blood
were discovered in a fossilized mosquito from the Eocene epoch.
But there wasn't any dinosaur DNA that we could use for cloning.
DNA is a vulnerable thing.
It could be deteriorated by sunlight or water.
So far, the oldest DNA discovered
is one million years old.
So if you want to clone dinosaurs,
you’d need to find DNA at least 66 times older than that.
Instead of waiting on the miraculous discovery of dinosaur DNA,
let’s try something different.
Like genetically reverse-engineering dinosaurs.
You could take an animal that’s alive today
and work backward.
OK, so going back through 66 million years of evolution
wouldn’t be a walk in the park.
Genetically engineering a chicken to have teeth
or a long tail
wouldn’t exactly make it a dinosaur.
“But life, uh, finds a way.”
Now, if your dinosaur creations somehow escaped
your maximum security lab
and began living in the wild,
you should be ready for trouble.
With over 700 different dinosaurs species discovered worldwide,
you'd have to find out which of them
would be the safest to share the planet with
and which ones would pose a serious threat.
And you'd have to figure that out the hard way.
They would breed on their own.
They would be hunted for sport
or for meat.
Maybe even kept as pets.
And then, there would be
a Tyrannosaurus rex on the prowl for you.
No, not specifically you.
Humans in general.
People would spend less time outdoors
out of fear of velociraptor attacks.
Jobs requiring travel would become
infinitely more dangerous.
Do you want to be driving an 18-wheeler
with one of these things running across the highway?
Travel would also be more expensive
because of extra security precautions.
Delays and cancellations would be common
due to the flight patterns of pterodactyls.
And food supply chains would be disrupted,
as cattle and other livestock
would be prime targets for predatory dinosaurs.
These creatures never had mammals to snack on in the past.
Ranches and farms would be like a buffet for them.
Massive herbivores like sauropods
would struggle to meet their dietary needs.
The plants that currently exist
wouldn't be the same as those millions of years ago.
Sauropods wouldn't have teeth, jaws or digestive systems
adapted to eating the grasses that are common today.
Other animals and living things
would need to adapt to the new predators on the block.
Dinosaurs would be the ultimate invasive species.
And their presence could cause extinction events
for some of today's species.
It wouldn't be a bed of roses for the dinosaurs, either.
Unless they were engineered to be adapted
to our modern-day global environments and climate,
they would struggle too.
During the Cretaceous period,
the atmosphere had 14% more oxygen than ours does today.
For dinosaurs, it would feel like they were suddenly living
at a Mount Everest base camp.
If you could bring dinosaurs back,
you’d be facing a major ethical dilemma.
Mother Nature wiped them out.
Reintroducing them for pure entertainment
would be a hard case to win against scientists
pushing for further conservation efforts.
Especially if you’re planning to open
your very own Jurassic Park.
Lots of people would want to enjoy the dinosaurs
in a zoo-like setting.
You could stand to make a lot of money.
So you’d likely have more luck convincing people
if you stick to research purposes.
You could do it to further cloning technology,
or to verify findings and theories based on fossilized remains.
Maybe you'd be better off bringing back
an animal that became extinct because of humans.
But that’s a story
for another WHAT IF.