We have all seen the Jurassic Park/World movies right? Well, what if I told you that the dream of a dinosaur-inhabited national park is closer to being a reality? With the recent advances in technology, scientists have been exploring the possibility of cloning the DNA of fossils in order to rebirth an extinct species.
With a 15 million dollar grant, the geneticist and Harvard graduate, George Church and his team at Colossal Biosciences have been hard at work for many years, looking into the genetics of the great woolly mammoth. Church figured out that by taking the DNA from an Indian elephant and filling in the missing parts of the Woolley Mammoth fossil DNA, there is a high chance of a woolly mammoth offspring. This offspring will later be placed in a habitat park in Siberia in late 2027.
This great discovery would not only serve as a public spectacle but as a means to restore the ecosystem to its natural state. When Mammuthus primigenius (Scientific term for woolly mammoth) walked the earth, they, like all living things needed to sleep. When doing this, the mammoths packed the snow/ice making it harder for carbon to escape the polar ice caps. In today's world many people are concerned about how fast the polar ice caps are melting, and the rebirth of the woolly mammoth would be the perfect solution. These fantastic animals also knocked over many trees creating more grassland (Grasslands are great for storing carbon) proving another benefit.
Scientists are not just planning to stop with the woolly mammoth, engineers at Colossal are planning on rebirthing other species such as the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), and the dodo bird. Though it would take time, there are proven benefits outside of tourism that these animals could bring to our world. Personally, I love the idea of bringing back some species that we humans caused to go into extinction, however, I do understand that there are potential risks.
On the contrary, others may argue that the advances in genetic cloning should be limited or even outlawed because some extinct species are too risky to develop, such as the saber-tooth tiger. However, after much research on each species, the proper animals are selected, in order to rule out potential danger.
In conclusion, through advancements in technology, scientists are able to clone extinct animals by using fossil DNA, and the DNA from their closest relatives. Prehistoric cloning has positive social and eco-friendly effects when used the right way, and how these historic animals act that makes the beneficial to the economy.
Would you visit the woolly mammoth in Siberia? If not why?
Do you think that cloning ancient animal DNA is a good/safe investment of time and money? Why?
If you could choose any extinct animal to be cloned back to life, what would it be? Why?
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/14/1036884561/dna-resurrection-jurassic-park-woolly-mammoth
Replies
Great topic choice Grant! You did a great job overall but be sure to include your thoughts and opinions on the matter next time.
It would be really cool to see the wooly mammoth, but I somewhat agree, disagree. Now again if we brought back a T-rex for example that could end poorly since if it got out it would probably have to be killed. When we’re bringing stuff back into the environment it should be an animal that could ease in easily and not cause ruckus or destruction. Otherwise, it would be pretty cool to see extinct animals come back to life from human hands after human hands killed them in the first place.
I would definitally want to visit wooly mammoths. Cloneing ancient animal DNA could be good as long as we dont do very dangerous creatures, like Trex, pterydactal or any other carnivorios dinosaurs.
I would choose the Irish elk to bring back. standing almost 6'6-7'0 at the shoulders and antlers spanning 12'0 it would be cool to see this giant animal. There are elk antlers and a preserved skull with skin and fur. So we could take that and put it in a Fallow deer egg, the closest realitive to the Irish elk.
I agree. Cloning some of the animals listed above may result in chaos. The Irish Elk sounds like a fantastic animal to bring back to life! And that you have identified the closest living relative to the Irish Elk, Scientists should ( In theory) be able to clone this animal into existence.
I agree with all the benefits if bringing back these animals because it helps the earth but humans are going to want to turn these animals into tourist destination and then people are going to want one for themselves and who know how many people are going to die trying to watch those mammoths and other animals.
I don't think it is a good investment of time and money because this isn't something that needs to happen when money and time could be used for something a little more useful. If they did bring a woolly mammoth back I think I would go see it because it would be interesting to see a live mammoth.
If I had the chance to see the wooly mammoth I would probably go because it would be interesting to see because it became extinct a while ago. I think that cloning ancient animal DNA could be dangerous, there are many things that could go wrong and the wooly mammoth could be super dangerous and destroy cities and could ruin environments and ecosystems that have learned to live without the wooly mammoth.
I agree to a point. I agree that seeing a Woolly Mammoth would be a sight to see. I do however think that your claim about the mammoth destroying cities could be misguided. With the current state of security, I think that cities would be warned ahead of time, and the military unit of that city would have the proper technology to take care of this animal.
I would definitely visit the wooly mammoth it would be so cool to see an animal that once lived but disappeared for so long and we now can get them back. I think it is a good investment for certain species but not all. If you released some of these massive animals into the wild they would pose a massive threat to our food sources like or corn and bean crops.
I would visit the woolly mammoth because I think would be cool to see differents parts from our past. I think that ancient animal DNA testing is not a good investment of time because they could wreck the ecosystems that have been created after they have died off.
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