Re:Possible dinosaur DNA has been found
by empath75 on Friday April 17, 2020 @03:11PM
(#22901974)
It means half of the dna is destroyed every 500 years. After 65,000,000 years, you have 1/(2^130,000)th of the original DNA left, which is to say, none at all.
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DNA half-life isn't an immutable property of the material like radioactive half-life is. The environment has an effect. The DNA in cryogenically preserved tissue should have a much longer half life.
Curious what the half life would be for dinosaur blood within Amber (per the book)?
It seems to depend mostly on temperature and moisture: dry, cold, and unchanging are best. We have good DNA from Deniovans because it was recovered from bones and teeth that sat buried in a cave in Siberia for 50k years.
Being in amber might protect from moisture, but I think the temperature and temperature swings would still likely destroy it within thousands of years.