• Question: will there ever be dinosaurs again

    Asked by adamdaly to Angela, Gabriele, Karen, Maria, Shane on 14 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Shane Mc Guinness

      Shane Mc Guinness answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      I’m afraid that’s doubtful Adam,
      Some people believe that if we found some dinosaur blood, like some trapped in an insect that once bit a dinosaur, we’d be able to clone them.
      However, DNA, the building block of life, doesn’t survive for the millions of years that they’ve been extinct for, so it’s really unlikely.
      Sorry to ruin the dream (my dream too!) but I’m afraid that’s what we have based on current science. Who knows in the future though! You should become a scientist and work on these problems.
      But did you know that crocodiles, alligators and turtles were all around at the time of the dinosaurs! So I guess there are still some around today! And all birds evolved from lizards like dinosaurs, so I suppose you could say they’re still all around us!

    • Photo: Karen McCarthy

      Karen McCarthy answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Good question Adam, I’m sensing dinosaurs are a bit of a theme today!

      Like I said to Henry earlier, we have a very delicate ecosystem – our relationships with other animals, plants etc and our surroundings. Would dinosaurs be able to fit in with this delicate balance?

      Potentially dinosaur DNA could be cloned into another animal’s egg, allowing for a sort of dinosaur clone to be made, but you must also think about the consequences of this – as a scientist, you have a responsibility too – would it be a safe idea? Would this knowledge give benefit to the world, or be harmful? Would having dinosaurs walk around Dublin be a good idea, for both us and them!

      Lots of questions, and thats just coming from your one! 🙂

    • Photo: Angela Stevenson

      Angela Stevenson answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Unfortunately no 🙁 They went extinct a very very long time ago (even before the first humans were on Earth) and so have all DNA traces of them. It would be great if we could find some dinosaur DNA, but it’s probably all disintegrated by now. However, have you ever seen the Komodo dragon? It s a huge lizard that lives in Indonesia.. and guess what, it’s very similar looking to our dinosaur friends! have a look: . It’s equally as vicious too. Great question Adam 🙂

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