The Science of Jurassic Park and the Lost World

By David Lindley, Rob DeSalle

Subjects: Paleontology

Description: Could it really happen? Could modern scientists using cutting-edge laboratory techniques really clone living, breathing, hungry dinosaurs and populate a true-to-life Jurassic Park? Along with delightful and fascinating facts and factoids - including Jurassic Park and The Lost World movie bloopers - readers will learn:. Why amber from the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean island, could never contain dinosaur DNA - and where you might try looking for the real thing. How scientists might go about getting a complete genetic blueprint of a long-extinct creature, and why they know that doing so is not enough to re-create life. Why the hardest part of the process may be finding an egg that "knows" everything a dinosaur egg would have known about turning DNA material into a living dinosaur. Why a real Jurassic Park would have to be much more than a twenty-two square mile preserve - more likely an area about as big as the state of Connecticut.