Posted on 09/14/2021 5:57:19 AM PDT by Red Badger
It is the elephant in the genomics room: can extinct species be resurrected? One bioscience firm insists they can, announcing Monday its intent to use emerging technology to restore the woolly mammoth to the Arctic tundra.
New company Colossal, capitalizing on a partnership with a Harvard geneticist, said its species "de-extinction" effort has the potential to anchor a working model for restoring damaged or lost ecosystems and thereby help slow or even halt the effects of climate change.
"Never before has humanity been able to harness the power of this technology to rebuild ecosystems, heal our Earth and preserve its future through the repopulation of extinct animals," Colossal chief executive and co-founder Ben Lamm, an emerging technology entrepreneur, said in a statement.
"In addition to bringing back ancient extinct species like the woolly mammoth, we will be able to leverage our technologies to help preserve critically endangered species that are on the verge of extinction and restore animals where humankind had a hand in their demise."
Climate change can be tied back to human activity, so it is our duty to restore Earth to a healthier state. It begins with a new wave of disruptive conservationism and restorative biology. #ItIsColossal pic.twitter.com/fQdfNgUKQI
— Colossal (@ItIsColossal) September 13, 2021 Woolly mammoths roamed much of the Arctic, and co-existed with early humans who hunted the cold-resistant herbivores for food and used its tusks and bones as tools.
The animals died out about 4,000 years ago. For decades, scientists have been recovering bits and pieces of mammoth tusks, bones, teeth, and hair to extract and try to sequence the mammoth's DNA.
Colossal says it aims to insert DNA sequences of woolly mammoths, collected from well-preserved remains in the permafrost and frozen steppes, into the genome of Asian elephants, to create an "elephant-mammoth hybrid".
Asian elephants and woolly mammoths share a 99.6 percent similar DNA makeup, Colossal says on its website.
Company co-founder George Church is a renowned geneticist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, who is using pioneering techniques, including CRISPR technology, to advance species de-extinction.
"Technologies discovered in pursuit of this grand vision – a living, walking proxy of a woolly mammoth – could create very significant opportunities in conservation and beyond," Church said in the statement.
The woolly mammoth's vast migration patterns were seen as critical to preserving the Arctic region's environmental health.
Colossal says restoring the beasts has the potential to revitalize the Arctic grasslands, a vast region with major climate change-combatting properties, such as carbon sequestering and methane suppression.
Colossal is funded in part through a US$15 million seed round from investors and says its advisors include leaders in bioethics and genomics.
Except it really won’t be a mammoth it will be a elephant-mammoth hybrid. Which may or may not be viable in the long term. At best it will be no more successful then the attempts to resurrect the Auroch (European wild cattle) tried by the German in the late 1800s & early 1900s. The last Auroch was killed I think in Spain in the 1600s. You do see symbolic representations of the animal in European heraldry. Supposedly very fierce much like African wild cattle - said to be the most dangerous animal in Africa. So this resurrect the mammoth title is a mischaracterization.
I want a Tasmanian Tiger.
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Died out long after the end of the Ice Age or Younger Dryas.
Jurassic Park was a prophecy.
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no. Dinos and mega fauna are two different propositions.
Supposedly very fierce much like African wild cattle - said to be the most dangerous animal in Africa.
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or Water Buffalo most deadly, after the Hippopotamus and Rhinos
You know there are plagues that are buried, and if buried...
What’s the probability?
And Woolly Bully
I know, 1930’s I think.
They’re extinct, so I want one.
There’s zero chance anything could go wrong with this...
They should DEFINITELY bring back Marc Bolan
Let’s not be L7!
T-Rex is next!
But T Tigers are ugly and probably smell bad!
Okay, then I want an Irish Elk.
God will not be mocked.
Too bad they won’t concentrate on bringing back extinct True American Patriots — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Paul Revere, John Adams, Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, John Hancock and many others who put their lives on the line for us.
How about they work to end the virus and other problems rather than creating more problems.
All the good viruses are all taken................... Gotta dig up some really old ones to play with...............
Okay, then I want an Irish Elk.
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We could see that helping to feed a lot of people - so that’s a second - as longs as you agree with restoring Mastodons and Colombian Mammoths
When I mean African wild cattle I mean what’s commonly called the Cape Buffalo.
From wiki ...”It is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous animals on the African continent, and according to some estimates it gores, tramples, and kills over 200 people every year... “
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