General

Some extinct animals will be resurrected soon

Is it possible to resurrect extinct animals? The first who asked himself this question, most likely, was the ancient Neanderthal man who hunted mammoths in order to obtain fur and meat valuable in the conditions of the ice age. Naturally, he failed to revive the mammoth, but after a couple of thousand years his distant descendant, a man, wants to do this. All he needs for historical achievement is a sample of the soft tissue of an extinct animal. So what kind of animals can we actually resurrect?

Mammoths may be one of the first animals that we can see in the near future.

How can resurrect extinct animals?

If you used to be a fan of the movie ParkJurassic Period ”, then you probably know that extinct ancient animals can be tried to bring to life thanks to such modern technology as cloning. In order to be able to clone an animal, scientists need to find at least the smallest part of the intact DNA, which is easiest to find in animals that have recently disappeared from the face of the planet.

As observations show, the most likelyto recreate any extinct species is when cloning those creatures whose remains have been in permafrost for a long time. Among the lucky ones who died at the right time and in the right place may be woolly mammoths, marsupials, saber-toothed cats and birds such as moa and dodo.

You will be interested: How much does cloning a cat or dog cost?

What animals can be raised soon?

As you know, the most anticipated in returning toplanet Earth animals today are mammoths. The last individuals of these creatures lived on the island of Wrangel 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 who died about 28 thousand years ago. Scientists transplanted the obtained nuclei into the egg cells of mice in order to observe possible signs of biological activity.

Giant sloth - one of the possible inhabitants of zoos of the future

Despite the fact that the process of cell division by scientistsfailed to start, 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. In your opinion, will the resurrection of extinct animals be useful or not? Let's try to discuss this issue in our Telegram chat.

Mandatory reading: In Central Asia they want to “resurrect” the Caspian tigers

So, scientists suggest that bring back to lifeYou can marsupial wolves, which have died out recently - approximately in the 30s of the XX century. Samples of these unique animals can still be found intact in museums in Australia.

Tasmanian (or marsupial) wolf completely extinct about 100 years ago

In addition to the marsupial wolf, it is planned to return tothe lives of birds like Moa. Perhaps this name does not tell you anything, but these birds are considered the largest of all species that have ever inhabited 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 chicken, human, ostrich and moa sizes

Another bird that may soon get a chanceto 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 absolutely lacked a sense of self-preservation, which was used by the discoverers of the island of Mauritius, completely destroying the Dodo as a species.

Despite their original appearance, Dodo are relatives of pigeons

Well, having once destroyed a large number of animals, a man began to restore what was lost and correct his own mistakes. Will we be wiser this time? Well, time will tell.