So how would a hypotheticals setup to undo that kind of genetic "damage" look like?

First step would be a simulator that simulates gestation to specimen and is capable to present afflicted areas compared to another specimen.

Now we take the genetic material and put it under version control which is kind of hard, as we do not have any but the latest commits.

We do have other projects though that forked of long ago.

Now we write unittests identifying aging in the specimen.

So how do you reconstruct a genetic history if all you have is geology, paleonthology. I have no idea, but Ai could give us several drafts.

There the problems just starts though. Genes that go fallow might have contributed by absence to important traits like brains over brawns.

Assuming the genetic git with its unittests identitys the culprits, what would be needed next would be a simulated parallel evolution to recreate the specimen while keeping the changes.

Its a process that would produce the DNA of a mammal similar species with the aging characteristics of a lizzard. It's also several Manhatten projects worth of work..

And it would be a different species, no patches, my guess would be also very different psyche. Predated mammalian traits are what make us human, anxious, social animals, aware of mortality till it hurts.

tldr, early mammals were eaten frequently -> short life with a violent end -> didn't need the longevity genes