Bird DNA could help bring Jurassic Park back to life

Washington: Scientists have claimed that identifying and altering certain genes found in modern birds` DNA would mean that genomes of the dinosaurs could be engineered 20 million years after they became extinct.

Oxford biochemist Dr Alison Woollard said theoretically it is possible to recreate the extinct species through DNA. A mosquito was recently found with the blood of another animal in its stomach, dating back 46 million years. Woollard said that they know that birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs, as proven by an unbroken line of fossils that tracks the evolution of the lineage from creatures like velociraptor or T- Rex through to the birds flying around today. She said that the most famous of these is the Archaeopteryx, a fossil that clearly shows the transition between feathered dinosaurs and modern birds. Wollard said that this evolution implies that buried deep inside the DNA of today`s birds are switched-off genes that control dinosaur-like traits.