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'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality - C C - Sep 4, 2024
'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next
https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/closer-than-people-think-woolly-mammoth-de-extinction-is-nearing-reality-and-we-have-no-idea-what-happens-next
INTRO: Scientists say they're close to resurrecting the woolly mammoth. The plans involve inserting genes for iconic woolly mammoth traits, like shaggy coats and curly tusks, into the genome of an elephant, and growing the creature in an elephant surrogate.
For about seven minutes in 2003, scientists reversed extinction. The resurrected lineage was the Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), and the last known member of the subspecies, a female named Celia, had died three years earlier.
Scientists had collected DNA from Celia's ear before her death and injected her genetic material into a domesticated goat egg cell with its nucleus removed. The resulting clone — the first and only extinct creature to have been revived at the time — died soon after birth due to a lung defect.
Although that effort failed to produce a healthy animal, "de-extinction" science has advanced dramatically in the past two decades. Technology is no longer a significant hurdle to reviving recently extinct species, and in many cases, we have enough DNA to piece together functional genomes for cloning. The question isn't so much whether we can resurrect lost species but if we should.
Some companies aren't waiting to answer that question. For instance, Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based biotechnology and genetic engineering company, plans to bring back three iconic extinct species: the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus; also known as the thylacine) and the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). The ultimate goal for these de-extinction efforts, according to Colossal's website, is to "enrich biodiversity, replenish vital ecological roles and bolster ecosystem resilience."
But a catastrophic outcome cannot be ruled out, other experts say. "We have this hubris as humans that we can control our technology," Oswald Schmitz, a professor of population and community ecology at Yale University, told Live Science. "I'm not so convinced."
Even in the best-case scenario, conservationists are skeptical that bringing back creatures that died out centuries or millennia ago will offer as much benefit as preserving the ones that are still hanging on.
"What's gone is gone," Schmitz said. (MORE - details)
RE: 'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality - Yazata - Sep 5, 2024
I don't really see any ethical problem with bringing back extinct species.
The main problems that I anticipate would be technical. For one thing, the DNA of dead organisms fragments over time. Provided that any dinosaur DNA even survives today, one would expect it to be reduced to countless tiny pieces that would be almost impossible to piece together, jig saw fashion. There would be other problems as well if we anticipate replacing the DNA of an egg with reconstructed dinosaur DNA. Where would we find a suitable egg? I'm doubtful that dinosaurs are even possible.
Animals that went extinct relatively recently would be a lot easier. The last Tasmanian tiger died only about 100 years ago, so it might be possible to obtain reasonably intact DNA sequences. A suitably large marsupial female could be used as a host, I guess. It might be difficult, but the problems seem more solvable. Much more doable than a dinosaur.
Mammoths went extinct ~10,000 years ago, but some of them were naturally frozen soon after death and their DNA might be less fragmented. And if some parts of their genome has been lost, perhaps it could be filled in with elephant DNA sequences. (Mammoths are probably as closely related to elephants as Asian and African elephants are to each other.) A female elephant could be artificially inseminated and carry the baby. I think that mammoths might be possible as well.
I'd like to see somebody do it.
RE: 'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality - confused2 - Sep 5, 2024
There's a lot of subtle stuff in DNA. You could maybe take fragments and make a thing that looked like a mammoth but would it's brain be wired up to it's eyes and trunk .. would it know how to empty it's bowels .. and so on and so on.