Remains of a 68-million-year-old pregnant T. Rex have been found in Montana, and scientists believe it may contain DNA that could theoretically be used to bring the species back.

This is archeological find will prove itself exciting for science buffs and Steven Spielberg enthusiasts alike. Lindsay Zanno, an assistant research professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, discussed the possibility of cloning and how exactly it would happen. “We have some evidence that fragments of DNA may be preserved in dinosaur fossils, but this remains to be tested further,” she states in an interview with Discovery News.

Within the T. Rex, they found a specific bone called the Medullary bone, which is only found during pregnancy. This bone is where the scientists believe they can find the DNA. Zappo explains, “It’s a special tissue that is built up as easily mobilized calcium storage just before egg laying. The outcome is that birds do not have to pull calcium from the main part of their bones in order to shell eggs, weakening their bones the way crocodiles do. Medullary bone is thus present just before and during egg laying, but is entirely gone after the female has finished laying eggs.”

There have been countless experiments over the years that involved turning chickens into dinosaurs. Yes, you read that correctly. This is because birds are the second closest living relatives to dinosaurs, and chickens are actually by far the closest out of all the birds when they are in their embryonic state. So far they have succeeded in creating one with a dinosaur beak and two with dinosaur legs. While this isn’t anything close to what you would imagine when you think of dinosaurs roaming the earth, this is the hard truth of cloning. There is no way to perfectly clone anything that has gone extinct, and so in order to maintain features that are at least similar to the original animal, they tend to combine DNA between animals in the same family.
The science behind cloning is still fairly new, and so far the main issue with it is the clones are generally unable to breed with other animals with the same genetic makeup. While scientists are working to fix this issue, it could certainly delay the opening of a fully functioning dinosaur-land like Jurassic Park. However, the information from one tiny strand of this T. Rex’s DNA could change the cloning industry forever.