Jurassic Park: Why Frog DNA Was Used to Create The Dinosaurs – Screen Rant

Jurassic Park's science uses frog DNA is a notable addition to the incomplete genome of a dinosaur, and it also gives them very special abilities.

The originalJurassic Parkfilmreveals that frog DNA was used to help create the dinosaurs, causing a problem with InGen's plan to limit breeding. Released in 1993, Steven Spielberg's classic not onlyboastedground-breaking advancements inCGI technology, but it also explored thescientific phenomena of cloning. While the logistics are not fully explained in the movie, they still provide a compellinglookinto the reemergence of dinosaurs.

When paleontologist Dr. Alan Grantand the team first arrive at the Jurassic Park Visitor Center, they are treated to a tour by John Hammond, founder of the park and of InGen, the company which makes dinosaur cloning possible. Their first stop includes a filmnarrated by Mr. DNA, the animated helix, who explains how the dinosaurs came to be. In simplified terms, scientists were able to extract dinosaur blood from prehistoric mosquitos preserved in amber. Because most of the samples' genomes were incomplete, geneticists needed something to, as Mr. DNA says, "fill in the holes and complete the code." This is where frog DNAcamein.

Related: Jurassic Park: All 6 Dinosaurs That Appear In The First Movie Explained

Frog DNA serves as both an easy, uncomplicated solution to the dinosaurs' genetic sequence and a plot device for later on in the film. It's that DNA solution that is responsible foreverydinosaur in the Jurassic Park series, like the T-Rex and Velociraptor before the later movies move into more overt genetic splicing. It'scombinedwith the dinosaurs' DNA sequence to make a finalized version for fertilization, filling in the gaps from degradation over the thousands of years since their extinction. In the film, it's only frog DNA that was used to serve the plot and explain how some dinosaurs have been able to change sex, while the original book uses a number of additional options. Fundamentally, it serves two other purposes too. Not only does it foreshadow the franchise's genetic tinkering and establishes that Dr Henry Wu's morals come second to his scientific drive,while adding an accessible means to explain how the amber extraction method can possibly lead to full sequence DNA cloning.

Michael Crichton's novel, on which the movie is based, provides a complex analysis of the differentchicken and amphibian genomes used in creating and boosting the growth of dinosaurs.Jurassic Park'sfilmmakers likely wanted to makethe process as simple as possible for audiences to understand, sofrog DNAbecame the sole additionalinsertion into the dinosaurs' biological makeup. Frog DNAis mentioned again in a later scene, when Dr. Grant, Lex, and Tim,discover freshly-hatched eggs outside of the lab. According to Dr. Wu, the head geneticist of the park's lab, all dinosaurs are programmed to be female, so breeding should be impossible. Upon finding the eggs, Dr. Grant remarks that some West African frogscan alter their sex in a single-sex space.Bymarrying a frogs genetic code with the dinosaurs', scientists gave dinosaursthe frogs ability to change sex and, therefore, mate. However, what type of frog DNA was actually used and whether the scientists knew about this trait from their research remains unclear.

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Jurassic Park: Why Frog DNA Was Used to Create The Dinosaurs - Screen Rant