In November of 2009, a nearly completed DNA sequence for the woolly mammoth was published by geneticists. Since then, many have speculated over the possibility of bringing extinct animals/creatures ‘back to life’ – for the use of a wonderful cliché term.
Stephan Schuster – a biologist at Pennsylvania State University – was highly supportive of the mammoth genome project and believes that one day, someone will try to create ‘a living, breathing creature from a genome sequence’.
- After a creature dies, the DNA in any flesh left untouched is soon destroyed as it is attacked by sunshine and bacteria.
- DNA can be preserved if the specimen froze to death in an icy wasteland; snuffed it in a dark cave or a really dry region à this circumstances would increase the likelihood of finding some intact stretches of DNA.
However, it is unlikely that regardless of how well adapted the area in which the specimen died is adapted to ‘preserving’ DNA, it is not likely to survive more than a million years. Therefore, ruling out dinosaurs.
"It's really only worth studying specimens that are less than 100,000 years old," says Schuster.
"It's hard to say that something will never ever be possible," says Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, "but it would require technologies so far removed from what we currently have that I cannot imagine how it would be done."
Assuming that one day, the necessary technology required to carry out the procedures involved was developed, a list of 10 Extinct Creatures that the World would love to behold was created:
1. Sabre-toothed tiger (Smilodon fatalis) - been extinct for approximately 10,000 years
2. Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) - extinct for approximately 25,000 years
3. Short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) - extinct for approximately 11,000 years
4. Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) - extinct since 1936
5. Glyptodon (Doedicurus clavicaudatus) - extinct for approximately 11,000 years
6. Woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) - extinct for approximately 10,000 years
7. Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) - extinct since approximately 1690 AD
8. Giant ground sloth (Megatherium americanum) - extinct for approximately 8000 years
9. Moa (Dinornis robustus)
10. Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus) - extinct for approximately 7700 years
11. Giant Beaver (Castoroides ohioensis) - extinct for approximately 10,000 years
12. Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) - almost extinct
Original Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126905.000-ten-extinct-beasts-that-could-walk-the-earth-again.html?full=true
Related Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081119140712.htm
