Cloning Extinct Species

[Doozer]

Ever since this forum got rebooted, I just thought I'd bring up another popular subject in the futurology community. Specifically, the possibility of seeing the resurrection of various extinct species via cloning in our lifetime. Which ones do you think are the most likely to be brought back first? Also when do you think is the most realistic date it could actually happen after scientists promising for years?

Most importantly, which one do you want to see brought back the most? Feedback will be much appreciated.

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Ever since this forum got rebooted, I just thought I'd bring up another popular subject in the futurology community. Specifically, the possibility of seeing the resurrection of various extinct species via cloning in our lifetime. Which ones do you think are the most likely to be brought back first? Also when do you think is the most realistic date it could actually happen after scientists promising for years?

Most importantly, which one do you want to see brought back the most? Feedback will be much appreciated.

Bring em all back! Let's make Jurassic Park a reality as well by the way without the total disasters it ended up as throughout the whole series. Maybe this time it won't go wrong.

Edit: As for the date when this can happen I guess it depends on scientific advances as always.

[Tadasuke]

If you had asked me in 2010, I would tell you that in 2020 there would be zoos with mammoths in them.

[Cocoonman]

After Jurassic Park came out, scientists were quick to dismiss the idea of cloning extinct animals as nonsense, repeating the same thing over and over again. Thus, no dinosaurs will ever walk the Earth again, since there is no DNA left behind. Their myopic prediction is based on the results from PCR experiments and spectroscopy. These techniques, however, are highly limited. For example, to amplify DNA by PCR, you need to crack the sample, dissolve it and subject it to cycles of high and low temperature, effectively destroying all original spatial relations between molecules. There need to be chemically intact fragments to which your probes can bind. This raises the question of whether sufficient information is left in fossils, such as tissue trapped in amber, to infer upon the original nucleotide sequences even if the DNA has been broken down and altered beyond the possibility of recognition by an enzyme? To answer that, a hypothetical advanced technologies would be needed, that could characterize a sample at the atomic level, creating a representation of all constituents in a 3-dimensional coordinate grid and using it to perform 'molecular archeology'. Only then the issue will be finally settled.

[Vakanai]

I don't think that dinosaurs will ever be brought out of extinction. I'm less skeptical however on the possibility of bringing back mammoths and mastodons, but even that I can only say "50/50 at best" and even then "not soon." But I'm not particularly interested in cloning species that went extinct during the last Ice Age really.

But where I do see promise, and what I do really want to see happen, is cloning species out of extinction of the last few hundred years or so - the ones we caused to become extinct. The dodo bird, the Tasmanian tiger, various species of birds and reptiles and amphibians and mammals that existed until we came along and hunted them and changed their environments and destroyed their habitats. Dinosaurs and mammoths are cool and neat and interesting, but ultimately would only be interesting sideshows at best. There's animals recently extinct that if brought back and reintroduced to the environments they once roamed might have an actual beneficial impact on those environments. And that's honestly where I'd rather see the focus be.

But if it takes bringing back a mammoth to get people interested in this and willing to throw money at it to get it done? Then by all means, clone that mammoth! Whatever it takes to drive that interest and get the momentum rolling.

[funkervogt]

In the distant future, we'll be able to create ancestor simulations of prehistoric animals in their native environments. The simulations will mimic real physics, chemistry, and genetics on a 1:1 basis. Through trial and error, we'll be able to deduce which genetic combinations create extinct animals like dinosaurs, and then we'll be able to synthesize them in the real world in cloning labs.

Re-running an Earth simulation again and again with slight changes to different parameters would result in different species that never existed in real life, and we could also will them into a flesh and blood existence.

Read about Kevin Kelly's "Periodic Table of Life" concept for more detail:

A “periodic table” of existing life forms graphed on a matrix of physical characters would reveal blank white spaces lacking organisms that “could be.” Such “could be” life forms that obey the constraints of matter – because we see the same form in other taxon — include a mammalian snake, a dinosaur mole, a flying spider, or a terrestrial squid. In fact, some of these could still evolve on earth, if we left the current flora and fauna alone long enough. (See Dougal Dixon’s magical “Zoology of the Future” in “After Man”) These speculative creatures are entirely plausible because they are convergent, recycling (but remixing) morphological forms that repeat throughout the biosphere.

https://kk.org/thetechnium/ordained-becomi/

[Cocoonman]

Sure, reverse engineering of the biological basis of species based on the accumulated knowledge of their external appearance, behavior, nutrition, etc., will be one way to pull it off in the future. Given the complete understanding of developmental biology and genetics, in principle a corresponding DNA could be synthesized and any imaginable animal brought to life - real or fictional - if it is compatible with the laws of physics.

[weatheriscool]

Since we were the cause of most of these extinctions in the first place, I think it is morally and ethically the right thing to bring them back and to put aside land and resources for their existence.

We'd have a stronger biosphere
We'd have a stronger food chain
We'd have a healthier planet

I don't see the down side

[funkervogt]

Sure, reverse engineering of the biological basis of species based on the accumulated knowledge of their external appearance, behavior, nutrition, etc., will be one way to pull it off in the future. Given the complete understanding of developmental biology and genetics, in principle a corresponding DNA could be synthesized and any imaginable animal brought to life - real or fictional - if it is compatible with the laws of physics.

That's exactly what I was trying to say.

[citali_]

I would like for that to happen. In particular, I could definitely see the cloning of extinct aquatic animals. Then it would be more exciting to visit any public aquariums.

[Doozer]

I'm starting to think that realistically, if we were to clone let's say wooly mammoths with ease, we'd need a HUGE shift in technology beyond what we have now. I'm talking Industrial Revolution-scale.

[merrycorsten]

Anything is real. Even the time to exhchange specimen further from the distinct finish- It's also a ground-barrier take to do so.- So what might happen?

[StanleyNeilsen]

Nope, I don't agree. Moreover, as far as I know, there always are some technologies that make clones.

[urdestan]

Long time since I came to this forum. But my thoughts on cloning extinct animals is a full go. But we’ll never get dinosaurs or the like and we’ll probably mever going to bring back a true woolly mammoth or with the recent news coming out, a true thylacine.

[Rodi]

Yes, one approach to do it in the future will be to reverse engineer the biological basis of species using our growing understanding of their behaviour, diet, and other characteristics. Given a thorough understanding of genetics and developmental biology, it is theoretically possible to create a comparable DNA and, provided it is compatible with the laws of physics, bring any species, whether real or imaginary, to life.

[funkervogt]

A Beijing-based gene firm on Monday announced the debut of the world's first cloned wild arctic wolf via video, 100 days after its birth in a Beijing lab. Experts said its birth pioneers the breeding of more rare and endangered animals through cloning technology.

"To save the endangered animal, we started the research cooperation with Harbin Polarland on cloning the arctic wolf in 2020. After two years of painstaking efforts, the arctic wolf was cloned successfully. It is the first case of its kind in the world," Mi Jidong, the company's general manager of the Beijing-based Sinogene Biotechnology Co, said at a press conference in Beijing.

...The birth of Maya continues the life of the wild female arctic wolf, which was introduced from Canada in 2006 and died of old age in 2021, whose name was also Maya.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202209/1275594.shtml

[caltrek]

“De-Extinction” Biotech Company Is Working To Bring the Dodo Back To Life
by Regina Sienra
February 7, 2023

Extract:

(My Modern Met) The dodo, a flightless bird that went extinct in the 17th century, has long been among the first animals that come to mind when we think of extinct species. However, their fate is also a testament to how humans can push a whole group of animals to the brink. Now, Colossal Bioscience, a genetic engineering company, has the mission to bring back the dodo—or more realistically, a simile of it.
…
“The Dodo is a prime example of a species that became extinct because we—people—made it impossible for them to survive in their native habitat,” says Beth Shapiro, Colossal Bioscience's lead paleogeneticist. “Having focused on genetic advancements in ancient DNA for my entire career and as the first to fully sequence the Dodo’s genome, I am thrilled to collaborate with Colossal and the people of Mauritius on the de-extinction and eventual re-wilding of the Dodo. I particularly look forward to furthering genetic rescue tools focused on birds and avian conservation.”

To do so, Colossal Bioscience plans to rely on gene editing techniques, mining the genome for key features that would then be reassembled with help from the dodo's closest living relative, the Nicobar pigeon. From there, the team would create primordial germ cells that would then be transferred into a surrogate chicken host.

If they were successful in their efforts to bring back the dodo, the resulting animal wouldn't be a dodo per se. The team refers to the resulting creature as a proxy, since they wouldn't be true replacements for a dodo, but more of a creature with its characteristics that could take its place in its ecosystem in the hopes of bringing back balance. The company has said they want to reintroduce it back to the wild in its native Mauritius. On top of that, it would be missing the behavioral traits that make a dodo a dodo, since these are learnt from parents and the community, and the resulting bird would be on its own.

Read more here: https://mymodernmet.com/colossal-dodo-de-extinction/

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

“De-Extinction” Biotech Company Is Working To Bring the Dodo Back To Life
by Regina Sienra
February 7, 2023

Extract:

(My Modern Met) The dodo, a flightless bird that went extinct in the 17th century, has long been among the first animals that come to mind when we think of extinct species. However, their fate is also a testament to how humans can push a whole group of animals to the brink. Now, Colossal Bioscience, a genetic engineering company, has the mission to bring back the dodo—or more realistically, a simile of it.
…
“The Dodo is a prime example of a species that became extinct because we—people—made it impossible for them to survive in their native habitat,” says Beth Shapiro, Colossal Bioscience's lead paleogeneticist. “Having focused on genetic advancements in ancient DNA for my entire career and as the first to fully sequence the Dodo’s genome, I am thrilled to collaborate with Colossal and the people of Mauritius on the de-extinction and eventual re-wilding of the Dodo. I particularly look forward to furthering genetic rescue tools focused on birds and avian conservation.”

To do so, Colossal Bioscience plans to rely on gene editing techniques, mining the genome for key features that would then be reassembled with help from the dodo's closest living relative, the Nicobar pigeon. From there, the team would create primordial germ cells that would then be transferred into a surrogate chicken host.

If they were successful in their efforts to bring back the dodo, the resulting animal wouldn't be a dodo per se. The team refers to the resulting creature as a proxy, since they wouldn't be true replacements for a dodo, but more of a creature with its characteristics that could take its place in its ecosystem in the hopes of bringing back balance. The company has said they want to reintroduce it back to the wild in its native Mauritius. On top of that, it would be missing the behavioral traits that make a dodo a dodo, since these are learnt from parents and the community, and the resulting bird would be on its own.

Read more here: https://mymodernmet.com/colossal-dodo-de-extinction/

If this lovely concept becomes a reality of which it can be I wonder how long until an ambitious old man comes along with his own INGEN to bring back dinosaurs. Hopefully such primitive lizards won't get released into cities like a show series theorized.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

“De-Extinction” Biotech Company Is Working To Bring the Dodo Back To Life
by Regina Sienra
February 7, 2023

...
Read more here: https://mymodernmet.com/colossal-dodo-de-extinction/

Here is more on that:

De-Extinction of The Dodo Takes Another Step Closer to Reality
by Tom Hale
November 24, 2023

Introduction:

(IFL Science) The mission to resurrect the dodo from extinction has just been given a boost thanks to a new partnership between Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering and de-extinction company, and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit conservation organization that works closely with the Mauritian government.

The de-extinction of the dodo is one of the central interests of Colossal’s Avian Genomics Group. With the help of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation’s expertise in avian rescue and field monitoring, the project will now attempt to restore the dodo’s native habitats on the island of Mauritius off the east coast of Africa.

After all, there’s no point reviving the species if it doesn’t have a suitable home.

“Colossal’s de-extinction projects are only successful if the animals are rewilded and brought back to their natural habitat. We look forward to working with Mauritius to ensure this happens with the dodo,” Matt James, Colossal’s Chief Animal Officer, said in a statement sent to IFLScience.

Dodos fell into extinction in the 17th century when Europeans arrived in Mauritius during the age of colonization. As chilled-out, flightless birds that nested on the ground, the species became easy targets for hunters, as well as the predatory animals they introduced to the island like dogs, cats, pigs, rats, and crab-eating macaques. Their population quickly plummeted. The last confirmed sighting of a live dodo was in 1662, although statistical analysis suggests they held on as far as 1690. Either way, it’s near-certain there were no dodos left by the 1700s.

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/de-extincti ... ty-71704