Scientists Really Did Try to Extract DNA from Amber Like in ‘Jurassic Park’

Many people are enticed by the idea of a real life Jurassic Park, though perhaps without the mass casualties experienced in the movie “Jurassic Park.” Despite the death and dismemberment that occurred, the film nonetheless managed to capture viewers and reignite an interest—dare I say a love?—for those creatures that walked the Earth some 230 million years before us.

As is often the case when science and Hollywood mix, the theories behind “Jurassic Park” should undoubtedly be taken with a grain of salt. But what many people don’t know, is that scientists really did attempt to extract a usable sample of dinosaur DNA from fossilized amber—as was the method for DNA extraction used in the movie.

In March 2017, the acclaimed paleontologist who consulted on the “Jurassic Park” series, Jack Horner, gave a talk at a dinosaur-themed event in the small town of Bigfork, Montana. Over 100 people showed up, myself included. While Bigfork may not be the typical venue for big name speakers, it’s home to the “Jurassic Park” producer, Gerald “Jerry” Molen. Jack Horner, though not from Bigfork, is also from Montana.

Montana is a large state—the fourth largest by square mile—but it’s also the fourth smallest by population density, with only a million people who call it home. So it’s all the more exciting when one of our own makes it to the “big time,” and even more so when they come back to share their story. Montana’s story in particular has a long history of paleontological discovery, and Jack Horner is at the center of it.

Horner is a renowned dinosaur expert, most well-known for his discovery of the Maiasaura species of dinosaur on “Egg Mountain,” south of Choteau, Montana. Originally from the town of Shelby, Horner grew up a mere hour from what would turn out to be a dinosaur hotspot. He was only 8 years old when he found his first fossil.

Horner made a groundbreaking discovery of baby dinosaur bones in 1983. What he unearthed at “Egg Mountain” was a nest of 15 baby dinosaurs from a new duck-billed species he later named the Maiasaura. That same area was also later found to be the largest concentration of dinosaurs in the world, with 127,000 dinosaurs, not all of which have been excavated, but that are believed to be the remains of a catastrophic volcanic event.

In 1993, Horner was asked by Steven Spielberg to work on the set of “Jurassic Park,” adapted from the book of the same name by Michael Crichton that was published in 1990. After his work on the film, Horner received a grant to test the scientific theory behind the movie — to remove DNA from an insect preserved in amber. It was the first attempt at collecting dinosaur DNA.

In trying to duplicate what had been done in the movie, Horner discovered that it wasn’t possible to extract DNA from the insect. “You can’t make dinosaurs like they did in ‘Jurassic Park,’” Horner said.

He again tried to extract DNA by breaking the femur of a Tyrannosaurus rex. What he discovered was that DNA simply doesn’t last long enough to be found in today’s fossils.

But his efforts to find dinosaur DNA didn’t end with fossils.

The 21st Century Dinosaur

Up until the late ‘70s, Horner said people thought dinosaurs were very reptilian. What scientists later discovered is that dinosaurs were actually more like birds than reptiles. Much like birds, dinosaurs built nests, and scientists believe they also nested in colonies and groups. Horner noted that many of the movie’s dinosaurs are not accurate in their depiction, but were dramatized for the film.

“We knew at the time that velociraptors had feathers, Steven [Spielberg] decided dinosaurs with feathers wouldn’t be scary enough,” Horner said.

As he continued in his search for dinosaur DNA, Horner looked to a modern day relative. For paleontological purposes, birds are now classified as dinosaurs, and dinosaurs are now separated into the classes of “avian,” or birds, and “non-avian,” or early dinosaurs, which lacked the ability to fly.

“The question is whether we can make a non-avian dinosaur out of an avian dinosaur,” Horner said. “So that’s what we’ve been doing, in Bozeman [Montana].”

Horner said that in using chicken eggs and switching on the genes from their dinosaur ancestors, he believes that a new bird, resembling a dinosaur, could be created.

Such attempts have already been made, Horner noted, referencing an instance in 2006 when a gene in the common chicken was switched off, allowing the bird to grow teeth. He then referenced another study in 2015, where a group from Harvard changed the shape of a chicken’s head to reflect an earlier dinosaur shape.

Horner says he’s now getting close to creating the new bird. He’s figured out how to create the hands, and was working on the tail at the time of his talk.

While some may want to see a return of the dinosaurs simply because, well, dinosaurs are cool. Horner’s experiments have a different agenda.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘Why would you want to do that?’” Horner said, “Learning how to turn genes on and how to turn them off has huge impacts for the medical field. It’s a fun way to do some really important science and it gets kids interested in genetics.”

By experimenting with how to turn certain genes on and off, scientists can better understand how to similarly turn good genes on, and bad genes off, in people. This kind of gene editing could be instrumental in eradicating many diseases.

So while a real life Jurassic Park might be an exciting—if not terrifying—prospect, the science used to create a dinosaur from a chicken would be of far greater value than an actual dinosaur.

To learn more about Jack Horner’s work, watch his Ted Talk about building a dinosaur from a chicken.