The renowned paleontologist who served as the inspiration for Jurassic Park protagonist Dr. Alan Grant is spearheading genetic research that could engineer dinosaurs back into existence within the next five to 10 years. While Dr. Jack Horner, who has consulted on all four Jurassic films, initially believed the key to recreating the prehistoric creatures lay in working with ancient DNA strands, further study about DNA degradation over time has since ruled out that possibility.
… Instead, a group of scientists at Harvard and Yale have turned their eye to the modern-day chicken. Horner said, “Birds are dinosaurs. So we just need to fix them so they look a little more like a dinosaur.” The team has already had success in mutating chickens back to the very creatures from which they descended. If that wasn’t enough genetic splicing and dicing, Harvard scientists attempted a similar feat recently by inserting the genes of a woolly mammoth into elephants in order to recreate the extinct beasts.