But scientists have a big problem when trying to find DNA in dinosaur fossils.

DNA molecules eventually decay. Recent studies show DNA deteriorates and ultimately disintegrates after about 7 million years.

That sounds like a long time, but the last dinosaur died at the end of the Cretaceous Period . That’s more than 65 million years ago.

Dig up a fossil today, and any dino-DNA within would have long since fallen apart.

That means, as far as scientists know, and even using the best technology available today, it’s not possible to make a dinosaur from its DNA.

Although it’s too late to find dino-DNA, scientists recently found something almost as intriguing.

They discovered DNA fragments in the fossils of Neanderthals and other ancient mammals, such as woolly mammoths .

Although it’s too late to find dino-DNA, scientists recently found something almost as intriguing.

They discovered DNA fragments in the fossils of Neanderthals and other ancient mammals, such as woolly mammoths .

Now that makes sense; those fragments are less than 2 million years old, well before all of the DNA would decay.

Just for fun, let’s imagine that somehow, sometime in the future, researchers came up with fragments of dinosaur DNA.

With only fragments, scientists still could not make a complete dinosaur.

Instead, they would have to combine the fragments with the DNA of a modern-day animal to create a living organism.

That creature, however, could not be called an actual dinosaur. Rather, it would be a hybrid, a blend of dinosaur and, most likely, a bird or reptile.