Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million

[Mr. McD]

Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million.

The same technology could be applied to any other extinct species from which one can obtain hair, horn, hooves, fur or feathers, and which went extinct within the last 60,000 years,the effective age limit for DNA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?_r=1

[XemaSab]

1. Pigeons, parakeets, ducks, auks

The possibilities are exciting! :bounce:

[LeftinOH]

4. ..as in Passenger; Carolina; Labrador, Great? It would be nice to bring back

those species which we destroyed out of sheer malice or indifference.

[XemaSab]

6. Yup

:thumbsup:

[Taverner]

2. Its theoretically possible

Although it wouldn't be 100% mammoth - it would have to have some elephant DNA in there...

[lapfog_1]

3. 60,000 years!

According to the fundies... we can have Jurassic Park!

[HereSince1628]

5. We could isn't the same as we should.

It's a marvelous thing to believe we have now got the technology to do that. No doubt plumbing the depths of diversity available in preserved hair has interesting possibilities.

But,as a zoologist I'm not really dying to see either a Pleistocene Zoo or an Ice-age Megafauna Park. I'm not sure it is ethical to create lonely animals stranded outside of their time and probably imprisoned to prevent them from being exposed to pathogens and parasites alien to their life-histories.

Just so that "we" can demonstrate "we" have the power to do it isn't a good reason. Creating zoo attractions to raise money also seems like not a very good reason.

[Marrah_G]

7. I agree

I think messing with this sort of thing would end up with many unintended consequences.

The curious human in me would love to see a mammoth sort of up close and personal, but the intelligent human in me knows this is a bad, bad idea. There is no place for them in this world. No place for them to roam safely as they innately need to do.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. On the other hand, is it right to bring back species that we killed off ourselves in more recent

times?

(Not that we can possibly keep up with the massive die-offs that we are sure to bring about as we cook the planet.)