LionDen
03-26-2013, 07:19 AM
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LAST WEEKEND AT a TEDx conference in Washington DC sponsored by National Geographic, scientists met to discuss which animals should be brought back from extinction. They also discussed the how, why and ethics of doing so.
They called it ‘de-extinction‘.
A cover story for this month’s National Geographic explains how de-extinction rests on a relatively simple premise: it involves taking old DNA samples, reassembling them into a full genome which is then injected into embryonic cells which have had their own DNA taken out, and then finding a suitable living surrogate to give birth.
The Washington Post reports that ten years ago, a team of scientists from France and Spain almost brought back an extinct wild goat – but it only lived for 10 minutes. It raises a host of issues, including how scientists can get a good enough sample of DNA from the extinct animal – and whether or not they should.
There are a few guidelines for which ancient species are considered, and sadly, dinosaurs are so long dead they aren’t in the picture. Their DNA has long ago degraded, so researchers are fairly sure that Jurassic Park will never happen.
a_hgCM8XZkk
They chose the animals using the following criteria: Are the species desirable – do they hold an important ecological function or are they beloved by humans? Are the species practical choices – do we have access to tissue that could give us good quality DNA samples or germ cells to reproduce the species? And are they able to be reintroduced into the world – are the habitats in which they live available and do we know why they went extinct in the first place?
Even with the criteria, this still leaves plenty of other animals on the table. The list of candidates is actually pretty long, considering.
The cost of de-extinction varies by species but projects could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. Then there’s also the cost of housing the animals once they are created, and re-introducing them into the world and protecting them from poachers once they are there.
But if you were the zoo that had that one woolly mammoth or saber-toothed cat, these costs might just be worth it.
Here are 22 of the 24 animals they are hoping to one day resurrect.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04562a82cfe70bcc2b864 6f77f7b8eb0320.jpg
The Carolina Parakeet was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States. The last wild specimen died in 1904 in Florida. There are multiple reasons for its extinction, but a contributing factor was the demand for its colorful feathers to decorate ladies' hats.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04574a37c69a05f4873b9 26eed697b504bb.jpg
This extinct species of plains Zebra, the Quagga, once lived in South Africa. The last wild one was shot in 1870 and the last in captivity died in 1883.
http://c3.dmlimg.com/315234f77e06c58db60e12adebc349c35f2dcb0747d212f051 e571dbaa754359.jpg
The Moho are a genus of extinct birds from Hawaii. Most of them died out because of habitat loss and hunting. The Hawaiian Moho seen here died out in 1934.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04591fa66b0446afe5279 ccffaa5392302a.jpg
The Dodo is known for being really dumb — but really it was just fearless because it evolved without any natural predators. Humans who arrived on its home island, Mauritius, took advantage of this and killed them all for food.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122245db853f8eca10ed5 3899c90e0e3e2a.jpg
The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, is the only marsupial to make the list. It lived in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea until the 1960s.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed89512295c64e3115627c27ee 3bd3590b8346f6.png
This beautiful bird is the Cuban Macaw. It lived in Cuba and was the last species of Caribbean macaw to go extinct, due to deforestation from human settlement. The last ones died off before the 1900s.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0450ede3d14a87745d64e fa9a01b5cfee5b.jpg
The iconic Saber-toothed cat, Smilodon, is also on the list. It died out about 10,000 years ago due to climate changes at the end of the last Ice Age
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed8951223da7a2df3f004141c8 ad9476d80e1b4c.png
The Pyrenean ibex lived in Southern France and the Northern Pyrenees, but died out in January 2000
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0450743e37f6197163ce0 b3a0a7e3109b3a.jpg
The Huia was a large species of New Zealand wattlebird. It went extinct in the 20th century because of hunting to make specimens for museums and private collectors. The female had a long, curved beak.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122de5a5c4962a42af320 fd94eebd53c8d7.jpg
Nobody wants more pigeons ... except scientists that is. The Passenger Pigeon died out after living in enormous flocks throughout the 20th century. It was hunted as food for slaves on a massive and mechanized scale until the last one died in 1914.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122faf3abb34d7bbb01fe 247796f1d36405.jpg
This giant, flightless Elephant bird was found only on the island of Madagascar and died out by the 17th century. It would have been 10 feet tall and weighed 880 pounds.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc045bd490281f8d64e81a7 1a581172136ba3.jpg
The mythical Aurochs is not a myth at all actually. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle and lived throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa. They died off in 1627.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc045d9755eed783d2531e6 234e6ed12221cf.jpg
The Caribbean monk seal was hunted to extinction for use as oil, and they were out-competed for fish (their main food source) by humans. The last individual was seen in 1952.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04555bb02f8c6410fe9fd d7584f68fdea1c.jpg
The Moa were a giant flightless bird from New Zealand that reached 12 feet tall and weighed more than 500 pounds. They died out because of over hunting by the Maori by 1400.
http://c3.dmlimg.com/315234f77e06c58db60e12adebc349c39181bd4020df9c5c87 b60c99822608c7.jpg
The Mastodon is an extinct species related to elephants that lived in North and Central America. They went extinct 12,000 years ago.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0457088d20d9c5aa5c472 4e0ab1ba2f7791.jpg
Frozen carcasses of the Woolly Mammoth allow scientists access to well-preserved DNA from these prehistoric giant animals, related to elephants. The last isolated population of woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 4,000 years ago.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04596da0d62f1e7a64bd5 a8da6e1cc19f21.jpg
The Great Auk went extinct in the mid-19th century. They lived in the North Atlantic from Northern Spain through Canada. They died off because of a combination of climate changes during the Little Ice Age that brought predatory polar bears into their territories, and human hunting.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0455f4f473911dd7d8bbb 0a00d750c70997.jpg
The Imperial Woodpecker may actually still be alive, but hasn't been seen in more than 50 years. It's presumed extinct because its entire habitat, which was in Mexico, has been destroyed.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122f9b97b43bc9bd327f4 28dbbf1da56ce4.jpg
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker lived in "virgin forests" of the southeastern United states, but there hasn't been a confirmed sighting of the bird since the 1940s. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology even offered a ,000 reward for someone who could lead researchers to a living specimen
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122682d70a093c0ca01b3 6088c6d8d9573c.jpg
The Heath Hen lived in coastal North America up until 1932. They made for delicious dinners, and were likely the foundation of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc045fdfcb9ab584ce8adc4 060ac21e5c4903.jpg
The Labrador Duck was always rare but disappeared between 1850 and 1870. Supposedly it didn't taste good, so it wasn't hunted extensively for food, so its extinction isn't fully explained.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122a816645741aa18c2af 75a188df9e2f98.jpg
This cute little guy is the Dusky Seaside Sparrow, which was found in Southern Florida. It was officially declared extinct in 1990 after humans started spraying the insecticide DDT on its habitat to kill off mosquitoes.
thejournal
LAST WEEKEND AT a TEDx conference in Washington DC sponsored by National Geographic, scientists met to discuss which animals should be brought back from extinction. They also discussed the how, why and ethics of doing so.
They called it ‘de-extinction‘.
A cover story for this month’s National Geographic explains how de-extinction rests on a relatively simple premise: it involves taking old DNA samples, reassembling them into a full genome which is then injected into embryonic cells which have had their own DNA taken out, and then finding a suitable living surrogate to give birth.
The Washington Post reports that ten years ago, a team of scientists from France and Spain almost brought back an extinct wild goat – but it only lived for 10 minutes. It raises a host of issues, including how scientists can get a good enough sample of DNA from the extinct animal – and whether or not they should.
There are a few guidelines for which ancient species are considered, and sadly, dinosaurs are so long dead they aren’t in the picture. Their DNA has long ago degraded, so researchers are fairly sure that Jurassic Park will never happen.
a_hgCM8XZkk
They chose the animals using the following criteria: Are the species desirable – do they hold an important ecological function or are they beloved by humans? Are the species practical choices – do we have access to tissue that could give us good quality DNA samples or germ cells to reproduce the species? And are they able to be reintroduced into the world – are the habitats in which they live available and do we know why they went extinct in the first place?
Even with the criteria, this still leaves plenty of other animals on the table. The list of candidates is actually pretty long, considering.
The cost of de-extinction varies by species but projects could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. Then there’s also the cost of housing the animals once they are created, and re-introducing them into the world and protecting them from poachers once they are there.
But if you were the zoo that had that one woolly mammoth or saber-toothed cat, these costs might just be worth it.
Here are 22 of the 24 animals they are hoping to one day resurrect.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04562a82cfe70bcc2b864 6f77f7b8eb0320.jpg
The Carolina Parakeet was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States. The last wild specimen died in 1904 in Florida. There are multiple reasons for its extinction, but a contributing factor was the demand for its colorful feathers to decorate ladies' hats.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04574a37c69a05f4873b9 26eed697b504bb.jpg
This extinct species of plains Zebra, the Quagga, once lived in South Africa. The last wild one was shot in 1870 and the last in captivity died in 1883.
http://c3.dmlimg.com/315234f77e06c58db60e12adebc349c35f2dcb0747d212f051 e571dbaa754359.jpg
The Moho are a genus of extinct birds from Hawaii. Most of them died out because of habitat loss and hunting. The Hawaiian Moho seen here died out in 1934.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04591fa66b0446afe5279 ccffaa5392302a.jpg
The Dodo is known for being really dumb — but really it was just fearless because it evolved without any natural predators. Humans who arrived on its home island, Mauritius, took advantage of this and killed them all for food.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122245db853f8eca10ed5 3899c90e0e3e2a.jpg
The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, is the only marsupial to make the list. It lived in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea until the 1960s.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed89512295c64e3115627c27ee 3bd3590b8346f6.png
This beautiful bird is the Cuban Macaw. It lived in Cuba and was the last species of Caribbean macaw to go extinct, due to deforestation from human settlement. The last ones died off before the 1900s.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0450ede3d14a87745d64e fa9a01b5cfee5b.jpg
The iconic Saber-toothed cat, Smilodon, is also on the list. It died out about 10,000 years ago due to climate changes at the end of the last Ice Age
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed8951223da7a2df3f004141c8 ad9476d80e1b4c.png
The Pyrenean ibex lived in Southern France and the Northern Pyrenees, but died out in January 2000
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0450743e37f6197163ce0 b3a0a7e3109b3a.jpg
The Huia was a large species of New Zealand wattlebird. It went extinct in the 20th century because of hunting to make specimens for museums and private collectors. The female had a long, curved beak.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122de5a5c4962a42af320 fd94eebd53c8d7.jpg
Nobody wants more pigeons ... except scientists that is. The Passenger Pigeon died out after living in enormous flocks throughout the 20th century. It was hunted as food for slaves on a massive and mechanized scale until the last one died in 1914.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122faf3abb34d7bbb01fe 247796f1d36405.jpg
This giant, flightless Elephant bird was found only on the island of Madagascar and died out by the 17th century. It would have been 10 feet tall and weighed 880 pounds.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc045bd490281f8d64e81a7 1a581172136ba3.jpg
The mythical Aurochs is not a myth at all actually. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle and lived throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa. They died off in 1627.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc045d9755eed783d2531e6 234e6ed12221cf.jpg
The Caribbean monk seal was hunted to extinction for use as oil, and they were out-competed for fish (their main food source) by humans. The last individual was seen in 1952.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04555bb02f8c6410fe9fd d7584f68fdea1c.jpg
The Moa were a giant flightless bird from New Zealand that reached 12 feet tall and weighed more than 500 pounds. They died out because of over hunting by the Maori by 1400.
http://c3.dmlimg.com/315234f77e06c58db60e12adebc349c39181bd4020df9c5c87 b60c99822608c7.jpg
The Mastodon is an extinct species related to elephants that lived in North and Central America. They went extinct 12,000 years ago.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0457088d20d9c5aa5c472 4e0ab1ba2f7791.jpg
Frozen carcasses of the Woolly Mammoth allow scientists access to well-preserved DNA from these prehistoric giant animals, related to elephants. The last isolated population of woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 4,000 years ago.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc04596da0d62f1e7a64bd5 a8da6e1cc19f21.jpg
The Great Auk went extinct in the mid-19th century. They lived in the North Atlantic from Northern Spain through Canada. They died off because of a combination of climate changes during the Little Ice Age that brought predatory polar bears into their territories, and human hunting.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc0455f4f473911dd7d8bbb 0a00d750c70997.jpg
The Imperial Woodpecker may actually still be alive, but hasn't been seen in more than 50 years. It's presumed extinct because its entire habitat, which was in Mexico, has been destroyed.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122f9b97b43bc9bd327f4 28dbbf1da56ce4.jpg
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker lived in "virgin forests" of the southeastern United states, but there hasn't been a confirmed sighting of the bird since the 1940s. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology even offered a ,000 reward for someone who could lead researchers to a living specimen
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122682d70a093c0ca01b3 6088c6d8d9573c.jpg
The Heath Hen lived in coastal North America up until 1932. They made for delicious dinners, and were likely the foundation of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving.
http://c1.dmlimg.com/2e5c93fc5fcb277c88837e18ff8cc045fdfcb9ab584ce8adc4 060ac21e5c4903.jpg
The Labrador Duck was always rare but disappeared between 1850 and 1870. Supposedly it didn't taste good, so it wasn't hunted extensively for food, so its extinction isn't fully explained.
http://c2.dmlimg.com/abeafefb1775bcdec36d9c59ed895122a816645741aa18c2af 75a188df9e2f98.jpg
This cute little guy is the Dusky Seaside Sparrow, which was found in Southern Florida. It was officially declared extinct in 1990 after humans started spraying the insecticide DDT on its habitat to kill off mosquitoes.
thejournal