As soon as the debriefing session is over, you and your teammates race over to the library. Your mind is already beginning to imagine what it would be like to see a living, breathing dinosaur. Awesome! How would this be possible? What would it take to resurrect dinosaurs from the past? Under what kinds of conditions would they be kept in captivity? What implications would this have for humans and for the dinosaurs? Would this be a good thing or a bad thing?

You begin looking through articles, books, newspaper clippings, and websites. You quickly realize that: (1) controversies persist about the existence of dino DNA during a period of rapid development of new cloning techniques and (2) bringing dinosaurs back to life is not as simple as it seems. First of all, there are questions about whether dinosaur DNA is preserved well enough to genetically engineer a dinosaur, and then there are concerns about whether "cloning" can be achieved technologically using fossilized DNA from animals extinct for millions of years. If cloning can produce a dinosaur embryo, what are the challenges in raising, feeding, and sustaining an adult dinosaur? Is anyone thinking about safety and bioethical issues? You use your notes to create an outline of the stages that would be involved in recreating a dinosaur. It looks something like this:

You're still a little confused about how cloning takes place so you refer to the cloning diagrams in the cloning e-folder that help to explain general cloning procedures in mammals (in 1996, "Dolly" was the first animal, a sheep, cloned from the cells of an adult, living animal). The sketches reveal that three animals are generally involved in cloning one individual. An egg cell is donated by animal 1 but the cell's nucleus is removed (i.e., it's enucleated and so now is without its own genes). The nucleus from a body cell of animal 2 (the animal to be cloned) is transferred into the enucleated cell of animal 1, typically after jolts of electricity open the egg's pores and allow nuclear transfer to occur. Once nucleated, the genes from animal 2 direct the egg from animal 1 to grow and develop. After cell differentiation takes place, animal 1's egg cell, which now contains animal 2's DNA, is implanted into the uterus of animal 3, which gives birth to a genetically identical clone of animal 2.

Now you're getting somewhere. You compare the "recipe" above with the drawings in the cloning e-folder. You look at the simple drawings in awe. It seems to make sense, but nobody knows how this would work exactly in dinosaurs. How, you wonder, could creatures from the Earth's distant past be cloned from ancient DNA? Presumably animal 1 would be an animal closely related to dinosaurs, such as a bird or crocodile, which would donate a living cell. Animal 2 would be the dinosaur donor of the fossilized DNA, which would have been purified, concentrated or amplified, and then replicated. Animal 3 would be the surrogate mother, once again either a bird or crocodile.

You are beginning to feel a bit uneasy. Let us assume that dinosaur "cloning" is possible using fossil DNA. What would it take to raise a juvenile dinosaur to adulthood and to maintain a captive breeding program for dinosaurs? What kinds of environments and foods would be right for the dinosaurs? To what kinds of Cenozoic diseases might dinosaurs be particularly susceptible? Could dinosaurs be used to save endangered species from extinction, or would they cause species extinctions? What ethical questions are being considered about the rights of humans and of non-human species?

You and your colleagues will have to make a decision that will affect an entire planet: whether to "clone" dinosaurs or leave them as a part of the Earth's past. What you need is information -- enough to convince an entire team of scientists, investors, veterinarians, civilians, and judges of what would be involved.

HERE'S THE SITUATION (AGAIN):

As stated in Part I, you assignment is to present a full report to aid the judges in their decision. As indicated in detail earlier, each member of your team will represent one interest in this decision, such as scientist, investor, etc., and will need to be prepared to support your team's decision in court. Be prepared to consult as many sources as possible to justify your decision relying on theories of evolution, cloning, etc., and using actual or imagined examples based on scientifically accurate information. Here are some of the things you will need to know: