Post by trueblue on Aug 23, 2022 0:28:10 GMT
'Scientists say they can bring extinct species back. But should they?'
A group of scientists last week announced a plan to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, a coyote-like marsupial that has been extinct for nearly a century, using state-of-the-art gene editing technology.
The goal, researchers say, is to eventually reintroduce the creature back into the Australian wilderness, where it roamed as an apex predator before being hunted into extinction in the early 20th century. To achieve this, scientists plan to splice genetic material from old Tasmanian tigers with the DNA of its closest living relative — a mouse-sized marsupial called a dunnat — to create a new animal nearly identical to its long-dead ancestor.
The project is a collaboration between Australian researchers and a U.S.-based company called Colossal Biosciences. Last year, Colossal unveiled a bold plan to bring back the woolly mammoth. As difficult as reviving the Tasmanian tiger might be, the mammoth presents even larger challenges. Mammoths have been extinct for 4,000 years, meaning there is even less genetic material available to work with. The people behind the project concede that — if their work is successful — it will result in a creature that isn’t exactly a mammoth as it once existed, but really a “cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the Woolly Mammoth.”
These efforts are part of an emerging scientific movement called “de-extinction.” Separate projects have been launched in hopes of bringing back extinct species like the Christmas Island rat, the passenger pigeon and even possibly the dodo. Similar work is being done to help animals currently at risk of extinction. In 2020, scientists successfully cloned a black-footed ferret, a severely threatened species that would likely disappear without new members being added to wild populations.
The goal, researchers say, is to eventually reintroduce the creature back into the Australian wilderness, where it roamed as an apex predator before being hunted into extinction in the early 20th century. To achieve this, scientists plan to splice genetic material from old Tasmanian tigers with the DNA of its closest living relative — a mouse-sized marsupial called a dunnat — to create a new animal nearly identical to its long-dead ancestor.
The project is a collaboration between Australian researchers and a U.S.-based company called Colossal Biosciences. Last year, Colossal unveiled a bold plan to bring back the woolly mammoth. As difficult as reviving the Tasmanian tiger might be, the mammoth presents even larger challenges. Mammoths have been extinct for 4,000 years, meaning there is even less genetic material available to work with. The people behind the project concede that — if their work is successful — it will result in a creature that isn’t exactly a mammoth as it once existed, but really a “cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the Woolly Mammoth.”
These efforts are part of an emerging scientific movement called “de-extinction.” Separate projects have been launched in hopes of bringing back extinct species like the Christmas Island rat, the passenger pigeon and even possibly the dodo. Similar work is being done to help animals currently at risk of extinction. In 2020, scientists successfully cloned a black-footed ferret, a severely threatened species that would likely disappear without new members being added to wild populations.