Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Forget dinosaurs – de-extinct the Christmas Island rat (historical re-creations)

#1
C C Offline
https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animal...sland-rat/

EXCERPTS: Since becoming a popular concept in the 1990s, de-extinction efforts have focused on grand animals with mythical stature. [...] But even though the process of de-extinction is moving rapidly from the realm of fiction into reality, a team of palaeogeneticists say we should be focusing our attentions on more achievable targets than dinosaurs. Documenting their genomic work in Current Biology, they say they may have found an ideal candidate – Rattus macleari, the Christmas Island rat.

Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. Mammoths have been missing for 4,000 years. But Christmas Island rats? We lost them only 119 years ago, when disease brought by European ships decimated their populations. Having recently vanished, the Christmas Island rat still has many closely related species living today...

[...] De-extinction work is defined by what is unknown. When sequencing the genome of an extinct species, scientists face the challenge of working with degraded DNA, which doesn’t yield all the genetic information required to reconstruct a full genome of the extinct animal. But an animal such as the Christmas Island rat, alongside its genetic cousin the Norway brown rat, is something of a goldmine for evolutionary geneticists.

In much the same manner as the thylacine and the dunnart, the genome of the living rat provides a guidebook for how to assemble that of the extinct rat. Having obtained almost all of the Christmas Island rat’s genome from well-preserved skin samples, researchers can use the genome of the Norway brown rat to identify any gaps. Then, in theory, they can use CRISPR technology to gene edit the DNA of the living rat to match that of the extinct one.

“It was a quite a nice test model,” says Dr Tom Gilbert from the University of Copenhagen. “It’s the perfect case because when you sequence the genome, you have to compare it to a really good modern reference.”

Theoretically, the researchers say there is enough genetic information available to resurrect this recently deceased species – though it wouldn’t be a perfect copy... (MORE - missing details)
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Amazing historical factoids Magical Realist 81 1,816 Mar 23, 2024 06:42 PM
Last Post: Magical Realist
  Impact of the historical undertones of the labels "Black" & "African American" C C 0 72 Mar 23, 2022 04:36 PM
Last Post: C C
  Historical stool, blood samples reap new HIV discovery: Microbiome predisposed C C 0 51 Dec 13, 2021 01:23 AM
Last Post: C C
  Rethinking Easter Island’s historic “collapse” C C 0 144 Jun 2, 2020 04:00 AM
Last Post: C C
  Rats preserve historical treasures + Eat like the ancient Babylonians C C 0 172 Nov 19, 2019 02:38 AM
Last Post: C C
  Climate change in The New York Times Magazine is a historical mixed bag C C 0 413 Aug 7, 2018 08:50 PM
Last Post: C C
  In bed with the Romans + Amelia Earhart island theory strengthened C C 0 376 Jul 26, 2018 04:01 PM
Last Post: C C
  6 Historical Heads Stolen From Their Graves Magical Realist 0 390 Mar 8, 2017 06:14 PM
Last Post: Magical Realist
  Rufus Wilmot Griswold's historical besmirching of Edgar Allan Poe C C 0 374 Dec 13, 2016 05:10 AM
Last Post: C C
  Haiti's historical status + What was conservatism? C C 1 625 Nov 22, 2016 12:52 AM
Last Post: Syne



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)