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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Reverse Extinction: Should We Redo the Dodo? |
| 2013-04-23 |
| [An Nahar] Woolly mammoths stomp through the Siberian tundra as the giant moa strides the forest floor of New Zealand and Tasmania's dog-like "tigers" stalk their prey under the cover of night. This is not a snapshot of times past, nor next year's sequel to Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park." Instead, it is a scenario that some biogeneticists see as plausible in our own lifetimes: the resurrection of species driven to extinction, sometimes thousands of years ago. Next Thursday will be 60 years since Francis Crick and James Watson published their paper unveiling the structure of DNA, the double-helix genetic code for life. Today, some experts believe that by harnessing this breakthrough knowledge, the first extinct species could be revived within years. They could be cloned from genetic material teased from preserved tissues, with the reprogrammed egg implanted in a cousin species. Farther down the road, other species could live again through artificially-reconstituted sequences of their DNA, goes the argument. "For the gastric frog it would take maybe a year or two years. For a mammoth maybe 20, 30 years, maybe sooner," evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar of Canada's McMaster University told Agence La Belle France Presse of ongoing "de-extinction" efforts. In 2009, researchers announced they had cloned a bucardo, also called a Pyrenean Ibex, using DNA taken from the last member of this family of Spanish mountain goats before she died in 2000. This was the first cloned animal born from an extinct subspecies, but the success was mixed -- the kid, borne by a domestic goat, died within 10 minutes from a lung abnormality. Just last month, a team at Australia's University of New South Wales said they had cloned embryos of the gastric-brooding frog which died out in 1983 and was named for its weird reproductive technique of swallowing its eggs, brooding them in its stomach and then spitting out the offspring. The cloned embryos all died within a few days. Australian teams are also working on reviving the Tasmanian tiger with DNA obtained from an ethanol-preserved pup of the dog-like, marsupial predator that died out in the 1930s. In Japan, geneticists said in 2011 they planned to use DNA from frozen carcasses to resurrect within six years the woolly mammoth which died out during the last Ice Age. And in Britannia, Oxford University scientists have obtained genetic data from museum-held remains of the dodo, the flightless Indian Ocean island bird hunted to extinction by 1680. Scientists believe reconstruction would be feasible for most animals for which DNA has survived, possibly going back 200,000 years -- a limit that would exclude a "Jurassic Park"-like revival of the dinosaurs. The DNA sample would have to be well preserved and techniques would have to improve to reduce the risk of deformity, miscarriage and premature death, a characteristic of animal cloning today. "The way it is going now, I can see why people would imagine it (de-extinction) is possible," said Poinar. "I could envision that if there were no laws preventing it and the ethics had been worked, out, swathes of land in Siberia repopulated with mammoths and cave lions. "The discussion is really: 'Should we?'" |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #17 I doubt anyone would suggest cloning me. I could easily confirm as much with Mrs. Besoeker, but why bother. :-( |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-04-23 21:03 |
| #16 How long until we,re talking about cloning Einstein or Hitler or you or me. I think we,re just about to step over the line. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2013-04-23 20:39 |
| #15 Thanks, George Glaigum7976 -- that's one of my many favourites. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-04-23 19:52 |
| #14 You're on a roll tonight, Pappy. ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-04-23 18:49 |
| #13 We have dodos - they have tenure at Ivy league schools. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-04-23 18:43 |
| #12 Ah, the Ugly Chickens they didn't make it through the depression! A fun story see: http://library.worldtracker.org/English%20Literature/W/Waldrop,%20Howard/Howard%20Waldrop%20-%20The%20Ugly%20Chickens.pdf |
| Posted by: George Glaigum7976 2013-04-23 18:23 |
| #11 Alan wins! :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-04-23 17:47 |
| #10 Redo the Dodo???? Don't we have enough trouble with the Democrats? Why do you want more?? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2013-04-23 15:39 |
| #9 Considering dodo's were pretty much consumed into extinction, my guess is that they are a most tasty critter when roasted, fried, smoked, grilled, braised... |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2013-04-23 11:28 |
| #8 I want a 10" high T-Rex in an aquarium, and I want to feed it passenger pigeons. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2013-04-23 10:21 |
| #7 I'd rather resurrect the Byzantine Empire. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-04-23 09:58 |
| #6 Reviving dead species would endanger the Endangered Species Act. Since when have the power grabbers ever given up power? Never going to happen. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-04-23 09:30 |
| #5 Depends on the most important factor... What's it taste like roasted? For Science! |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-04-23 09:08 |
| #4 The is a reason species go extinct. It's a perfectly natural process. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-04-23 09:07 |
| #3 Reverse Extinction: Should We Redo the Dodo? apparently they've never seen/heard Joy Behar |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-04-23 08:17 |
| #2 If this is a 'poll', I say yes, cautiously and selectively, not with an eye to repopulating areas with ancient predators but for insight into the development of those specie. I would love to see what a giant otter looks and acts like, for instance. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2013-04-23 07:30 |
| #1 Screw the dodo. Let's revive Classical Liberalism. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2013-04-23 00:31 |