Some time ago I searched the net for an answer to the question, "If DNA from a dinosaur could be isolated, could an elephant be impregnated with a genetically engineered cell using that DNA to produce a baby dinosaur?"
What I found out was no, it couldn't be done. Reason: the only way to give birth to a young dinosaur would be
1) Modify the host egg cell to "accept" the dino DNA found in an insect that got trapped in amber, and
2) place the host egg cell in the womb of a living dinosaur (not a different species.)
I guess that is because the growing dinosaur embryo requires millions, if not billions, of signals from the mother dinosaur. Those signals help the fetus to grow into the baby dinosaur.
Therefore, if the DNA was used in the genetically engineered egg, and if the egg was placed in the elephant's womb, the result would be either a failure or a cross between a dinosaur and an elephant.
See: http://www.sdnhm.org/research/paleontology/jp_qanda.html#life
For some information regarding this topic.
Note: Today I read that a horse farm outside of Austin, TX, successfully bread a cloned racehorse. However, that horse cannot be registered as a Thoroughbred and therefore will probably not be allowed to race. What is next? The article suggested cloning Muhamid Ali twice so that we could watch Ali fight Ali or clone ten Michael Jordan's.
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