Message #108935

[Bianca]

Replacement Limbs



But can DNA be extracted from amber-preserved blood? And could it be used to sequence the DNA of long-extinct animals?

Experts are highly skeptical on both counts.

Along with other researchers, a team at the Natural History Museum in London recently tried to replicate experiments of scientists who claimed to have extracted insect DNA from amber fossils. These attempts all failed.

As a result, said the museum's ancient DNA expert Jeremy Austin, "Most scientists now agree that DNA doesn't survive in fossilized insects in amber."

And even if insect DNA was recoverable from amber fossils, the team says the chances of getting dinosaur DNA from a Jurassic-era mosquito are "virtually nonexistent."