Colossal Biosciences’ boss breaks down the science in Jurᴀssic World Rebirth and how it is compared to de-extinction technology in the real world. The fourth Jurᴀssic World movie and the seventh in the Jurᴀssic Park franchise stars Scarlett Johansson as Zora, who leads a skilled team to secure genetic material from the original Jurᴀssic Park site.

Co-founded by George Church and Ben Lamm, Colossal specializes in de-extinction technology. The company recently brought back dire wolves that went extinct 10,000 years ago, using preserved ancient DNA.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley, Lamm broke down how accurate the science was in Rebirth. The expert explained that the scientific aspect of the film is overall accurate. However, one thing that hasn’t been made possible is bringing back dinosaurs because of the lack of DNA sources.

Lamm revealed that the oldest DNA they work with is “about 1.2 million years old,” and dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago. Read his comment below:

I believe that we are at this interesting junction where a combination of AI compute and genome engineering allows us to bring back extinct species. Now, there’s not any dino DNA, because DNA degrades very quickly. The oldest DNA that we work with is about 1.2 million years old from a steppe mammoth. It’s pretty old, but dinosaurs died off 65 [or] million years ago. I don’t want to say “never”, but I don’t see a world where we will find intact dino DNA.

But a lot of the things that they were doing, and some of the stuff they were doing on the island that was a little bit more nefarious, is they were gene splicing. They were looking at all these different ways to engineer species. A lot of those animals that we saw weren’t real dinosaurs. They were engineered versions of super dinosaurs.

I think that what’s interesting is, from a genetic engineering perspective, while we can’t de-extinct dinosaurs, Colossal tries to be very, very specific in trying to identify the genes from ancient DNA–we have to get a lot of ancient DNA, we have to do a lot of comparative genomics–All of that is exactly [right] in the film. The genome engineering is pretty much how we do it in the film.

What This Means For Jurᴀssic World Rebirth

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth’s Science Is Accurate, But De-extinct Dinosaurs Are Not A Reality Yet

The science used to bring back dinosaurs in the Jurᴀssic Park franchise was first introduced in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original. Billionaire John Hammond led a facility to create new species, using degraded prehistoric dinosaur DNA extracted from a fossilized mosquito and genetic material from frogs to fill in gaps.

Lamm’s comment sheds some light on how realistic the technology really is, and how it has become a reality after two decades.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth‘s plot sees Zora’s special ops tasked to retrieve DNA materials to be used to save mankind. The expert’s comment clarifies the misconception about de-extinction technology and the dinosaurs seen in the new movie’s trailer, highlighting that they aren’t “real dinosaurs” but rather “engineered versions.”

Since Jurᴀssic Park came out, the film has faced criticism over its inaccurate portrayal of dinosaurs, and the sequels didn’t improve their accuracy. Lamm’s comment offers some explanation for why the creatures in the film are “inaccurate.”

Our Take On Jurᴀssic World Rebirth’s Science

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Revolves Around Science

From genetic splitting to genome engineering, what used to exist purely in science fiction is being realized in the real world. However, even then, science today still isn’t advanced enough to de-extinct dinosaurs. Colossal Biosciences’ co-founder was able to shed some light on the realism of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth and how the science used in the film is applied in real life.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth‘s trailer teases a science-heavy adventure filled with thrilling action and plenty of dinosaur encounters. The exact details of how the DNA samples of the three largest super dinosaurs are going to save mankind are kept under wraps, but audiences can expect to find out more about them once the film arrives.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth releases in theaters on July 2.