Cloning in Jurassic Park (1993)

Abigail Williams
ENGL 3153-996
07/30/2021

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Introducing the Concept
This analysis will cover the reality and science behind cloning. In 1996, a sheep was cloned from
adult cells. The cells were gathered from a sheep’s mammary gland and cultured for weeks. The
cultured cells went through the process of nuclear fusion. Scientists fused cells and unfertilized
eggs until they could implant them into a surrogate sheep. Out of 277 attempts, one was
successful in cloning the sheep named Dolly. Dolly was an exact clone of the sheep the
mammary cells were collected from, which proved that cloning is possible (The Life of Dolly).

Figure 1: Dolly (left) pictured with her surrogate mother (right). Notice, Dolly is a different breed of sheep. If Dolly
shared DNA with her surrogate mother, they would have more similarities.

Introduction of the Text

This analysis discusses the film Jurassic Park and its usage of cloning to recreate extinct
dinosaurs. In the film, Dr. John Alfred Hammond discovered they could create dinosaurs from a
mosquito encased in amber. This mosquito once fed on the blood of several kinds of dinosaurs.
The scientists were about to extract the DNA of dinosaurs from mosquitos and create their
clones.
“A DNA strand, like me, is the blueprint for buildin' a living thing. And sometimes, animals that
went extinct millions of years ago, like dinosaurs, left their blueprints for us to find.” - Dr.
Hammond (Jurassic Park).
They reasoned that the mosquito landed on a tree branch and became stuck in the sap. Over time,
the sap hardened into amber, which is how they found the preserved mosquito.

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 Fig
ure 2: The mosquito used to harvest the dinosaur DNA strands. In the movie, it is in the original amber and used as a
decoration on a cane.

Example 1:
Dolly was tested to see if there were any changes to her DNA. It was found that Dolly’s
telomeres were shorter than other sheep her age. Telomeres are the ends of the DNA that protect
it from being damaged. Dolly’s telomeres matched the telomeres taken from the donor sheep.
The telomeres made Dolly more susceptible to becoming ill. Dolly frequently had lungs issues
and developed arthritis at an early age (Callaway).
In Jurassic Park, the Triceratops was one of the only dinosaurs that became ill. It was explained
that this animal likely ate poisonous berries however, it was said that triceratops doesn’t eat
berries. The film never explains why the animal became sick but, an assumption could be made
that it was likely due to shorter telomeres.

Figure 3: The sick Triceratops found early in the movie.

Example 2:
When the film was released, there was a slight controversy with the design of the velociraptors.
The raptors have a strict reptile complexion. An article from the Natural History Museum

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explains how terrifying a velociraptor would look. It states, “A velociraptor would seem like an
unusual bird of prey – a large one that had been stretched out, but with a very long tail, clawed
hands and teeth” (Vicious Velociraptor). Taking the DNA sample and creating a dinosaur,
should be a replica of the donor DNA. The only reason there would be a different genetic
makeup is by DNA splicing. Splicing allows for new combinations of proteins and changes gene
expression.

Figure 4: Shows a researched remodel of a velociraptor compared to Jurassic Park’s design.

Conclusion
Overall, the film Jurassic Park had a strong understanding of cloning dinosaurs. The movie
shows characters collecting DNA from the blood found in a mosquito and added in underlying
conditions caused by cloning. On the other hand, the film wasn’t exactly accurate. It left room
for assumptions about the topic. Using the movie’s understanding of cloning, it isn’t plausible.
To create a clone, one would need a substantial amount of donor DNA. The film uses a small
amount for multiple species of dinosaurs. One mosquito may be enough to create a singular
dinosaur, but one would have to account for the fact that blood encased in amber isn’t likely to
stay liquid over billions of years. Jurassic Park had a solid concept, but it doesn’t seem possible
due to the other scientific factors mentioned. While cloning species is valid science, the movie
understates the overall process of effectively creating a clone. 

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Works Cited

Callaway, E. (2016). Dolly at 20: The inside story on the WORLD’S most Famous sheep.
Nature, 534(7609), 604–608. https://doi.org/10.1038/534604a

The life of Dolly. Dolly the Sheep. (n.d.). https://dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/facts/the-life-of-

dolly/index.html.

Vicious Velociraptor: Tales of a Turkey-Sized Dinosaur. (n.d.).

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/velociraptor-facts.html.

Jurassic Park. (n.d.).