Who can forget the classic 1993 movie Jurassic Park? In that film, scientists extracted dino DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber fossils and used it to bring back all kinds terrifying creatures–from the mighty T-rex to overgrown velociraptors.
Fast forward to 2019 and we’ve yet to create dinosaurs, or any other creatures, by extracting ancient DNA. It turns out DNA molecules degrade pretty quickly, leaving us without the necessary blueprints to reconstruct extinct animals.
But that doesn’t mean scientists have given up on de-extinction. There are a number of projects underway to bring back the woolly mammoth, the passenger pigeon, the auroch (an ancestor of modern cows), and, yes, even dinosaurs. And there are other projects trying to resuscitate more recently extinct animals like the Pyrenean Ibex and animals teetering on the edge of extinction such as the Northern White Rhino.
These pioneering experiments are the subject of the book “The Re-Origin of Species” by Swedish journalist Torill Kornfeldt. I spoke to Torill about what motivates the scientists behind de-extinction, how cutting edge genetic techniques are being used to mold living species into extinct ones and why many conservationists are critical of the whole enterprise.
Links:
The Re-Origin of Species: a second chance for extinct animals
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