Jurassic Park is Impossible: Scientists Discover DNA Trapped in Amber Highly Unlikely

When Jurassic Park first made it to the big screen, it was hard not to think of the eventual possibility of cloning dinosaurs. In the movie, scientists extracted DNA from insects preserved in amber before creating the massive beasts. The fact that researchers in the early 1990s claimed to have been able to successfully extract DNA from amber up to 130-million-years-old only made the movie that much more compelling. Now, though, scientists have made a new discovery; it turns out that the existence of DNA in these amber fossils is highly unlikely.

In order to examine whether or not DNA could be preserved in amber, the researchers used highly-sensitive DNA sequencing techniques on insects in copal. Copal is the sub-fossilized resin precursor of amber. In order to prevent contamination of the samples, all of the experiments were conducted in physically isolated laboratories with an ultra-filtered air supply.

"In the original 1990s studies DNA amplification was achieved by a process called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which will preferentially amplify any modern, undamaged DNA molecules that contaminate an extract of partially degraded ancient ones to give false positive results that might be mistaken for genuine ancient DNA," said Terry Brown, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our approach, using 'next generation' sequencing methods, is ideal for ancient DNA because it provides sequences for all the DNA molecules in an extract, regardless of their length, and is less likely to give preference to contaminating modern molecules."

In fact, this latest research shows that it'd be impossible to clone dinosaurs from ancient DNA trapped within amber. The researchers were unable to detect DNA in even the relatively young sub-fossilized insects in copal, despite using sensitive methods. This raises serious doubts about claims of DNA extraction from fossil insects in amber.

"Intuitively, one might imagine that the complete and rapid engulfment in resin, resulting in almost instantaneous demise, might promote the preservation of DNA in a resin entombed insect, but this appears not to be the case," said David Penney, one of the researchers, in a news release. "So, unfortunately, the Jurassic Park scenario must remain in the realms of fiction."

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.