Is it possible to resurrect extinct animals? The first who asked himself this question, most likely, was the ancient Neanderthal, who hunted mammoths in order to obtain valuable fur and meat under the conditions of the ice age. Naturally, he failed to revive the mammoth, but after a couple of thousand years his distant descendant, man, wants to do this. All he needs for a historic accomplishment is a sample of the soft tissue of an extinct animal. So what kind of animals can we actually resurrect?
How can extinct animals be resurrected?
If you were once a fan of the movie "Jurassic Park", then you probably know that extinct ancient animals can be tried to revive thanks to modern technology such as cloning. In order to be able to clone this or that animal, scientists need to find at least the smallest part of intact DNA, which is easiest to find in animals that have recently disappeared from the face of the planet.
Observations show that the most chances to recreate any extinct species are when cloning those creatures whose remains have been in the permafrost for a long time. Those lucky ones who died at the right time and in the right place may include woolly mammoths, marsupial wolves, saber-toothed cats and birds such as moa and dodo.
What animals can be resurrected in the near future?
As you know, the most anticipated animals in returning to planet Earth today are mammoths. The last individuals of these creatures lived on Wrangel Island about 3.5 thousand years ago. In order to test the viability of cells mummified in permafrost, a group of Japanese and Yakut scientists extracted several nuclei from muscle cells from a mammoth that died about 28 thousand years ago. The scientists transplanted the resulting nuclei into the eggs of mice in order to observe possible signs of biological activity.
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Giant sloth - one of the possible inhabitants of the zoos of the future.
Despite the fact that the scientists failed to start the process of cell division, several cells still showed some biological activity. Well, even such a result can be considered a success and a huge step in the resurrection of not only mammoths, but also other extinct animals. Do you think the idea of resurrecting extinct animals would be useful or not?
So, scientists suggest that you can return to life marsupial wolves, which became extinct quite recently - approximately in the 30s of the XX century. Samples of these unique animals can still be found intact in Australian museums.
The Tasmanian (or marsupial) wolf became completely extinct about 100 years ago.
In addition to the marsupial wolf, there are plans to revive birds such as the Moa. Perhaps this name does not tell you anything, but these birds are considered the largest of all species that have ever lived on the planet. Moa became extinct as a result of their extermination by humans about 600 years ago, but despite this very sad fact, their feathers and eggs can be found completely preserved.
Comparison of the sizes of chicken, human, ostrich and moa.
Another bird that may soon have a chance at resurrection is the Dodo. Dodo is the closest relative of modern pigeons that lived on the island of Mauritius. Due to the fact that these birds evolved for thousands of years in complete isolation from the outside world, they had absolutely no sense of self-preservation, which was used by the discoverers of the island of Mauritius, completely exterminating the Dodo as a species.
Despite its original appearance, Dodo - relatives of pigeons.
Well, having once destroyed a large number of animals, man began to restore what was lost and correct his own mistakes. Will we be wiser this time? Well, time will tell.
Daria Eletskaya