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re: Viable DNA is almost a certain impossibility
Robert Clark — (archived)

This book explores the difficulties in detail:

The Science of Jurassic Park and the Lost World.
by Rob Desalle, David Lindley
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060977353/103-7176576-6015809

It discusses that DNA degrades over time and none would be expected to remain intact over millions of years.
As I recall, they argue there is currently no way of recontructing this DNA. But it seems to me that if the DNA is undergoing some kind of random breakdown, then different strands will break apart at different places. That is, starting with a large number of separate, identical DNA molecules, you should have many partial DNA pieces where there is some degree of overlap at the ends.
Then perhaps you could reconstruct what the full DNA should look like by putting together this gigantic jigsaw puzzle.

Bob Clark

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