Are Scientists Bringing Back Dinosaurs? Here's What We Know About the Latest Efforts

Any time news is made upon the discovery of dinosaur fossils and unhatched dino eggs, our minds tend to wander into the possibilities of dinosaurs one day walking among us. As researchers are finding evidence of the prehistoric presence of dinosaurs from hundreds of millions of years ago in the U.S., is it really that unfathomable to posit that scientists may see these discoveries and become inspired to bring dinosaurs back?

As scientists continue to bioengineer lab mice, anything is possible.

All of that said, are the concerns that scientists are bringing back dinosaurs legitimate? What does the latest research say, and are scientists currently trying to accomplish this feat?

We answer these questions, and more, below.

No, it does not appear that most scientists currently believe that dinosaurs can be brought back from extinction.

As dinosaur researcher Dr. Susie Maidment tells the London-based Natural History Museum, while dinosaur DNA that may be one million years old (or older) has been found in the past, the delicate nature of how DNA breaks down due to environmental factors over time makes it unlikely that dinosaurs as we know them can be brought back from extinction.

"The idea that we may one day find a mosquito or biting fly from the Mesozoic with some parts of the blood still preserved is not outrageous," Maidment explained, also adding that "even if you find blood or soft tissue, you don't necessarily find DNA."

Furthermore, it appears that the ability to clone a dinosaur is scientifically impossible, leaving the process of reverse-engineering a dinosaur as a plausible option.

Ethical concerns, however, would then arise, per Maidment, of bringing back an animal wholly unsuited to adapt to the current world. "...An animal that died out naturally, perhaps 150 million years ago, is not going to recognize anything in this world if you bring it back," Maidment said. "What is it going to eat when grass hadn't evolved back then? What is its function, where do we put it, does anyone own it?"

Dr. Logan Kistler, an ancient DNA expert at the National Museum of Natural History, believes that the premise of Jurassic Park cannot be fulfilled in real life. Per the Smithsonian, researchers like Kistler instead may investigate prehistoric plants, woolly dogs, or other flora and fauna, though the DNA may either be too degraded or no longer exist on the planet.

Nevertheless, some scientists will never give up the fight, earnestly believing that the clue to bringing back dinosaurs lies within the unfound remains somewhere on the planet.

“I don’t think we should ever rule out getting dinosaur DNA from dinosaur fossils,” professor Mary Schweitzer tells the Guardian. “We’re not there yet, and maybe we won’t find it, but I guarantee we won’t if we don’t continue to look.”

Although scientists like Kistler hold firm that too many barriers exist to bring back the woolly mammoth, that hasn't stopped other researchers from attempting to do so. "We've got all the technology we need," Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm told Sky News in April 2024.

Indeed, a year later, TIME reported on March 4 that scientists from that firm successfully bred woolly mice by way of gene editing.

“The Colossal woolly mouse marks a watershed moment in our de-extinction mission,” Lamm said in a statement reported by TIME. "By engineering multiple cold-tolerant traits from mammoth evolutionary pathways into a living model species, we've proven our ability to recreate complex genetic combinations that took nature millions of years to create."

The jury, then, appears to still be out on whether or not dinosaurs — or prehistoric species in general — may one day be brought back from extinction.