Scientists are one step closer to creating a real Jurassic Park after discovering a world-first technique to extract DNA from fossils.

For the first time, scientists at the University of Newcastle have extracted DNA from a 55,000-year-old fossil and could help solve the missing link between dinosaurs and birds.

Scientist Christina Nielsen-Marsh, along with colleagues at the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Michigan State University, made the discovery.

They examined the molecular structure of two fossilised Bison bones, one from Siberia and the other from Alaska.

Scientists in the hit movie Jurassic Park used DNA extracted from fossils to recreate dinosaurs. This breakthrough makes that kind of science fiction one step closer to science fact.