Extinct cave bear DNA sequenced

BBC News ^ | Friday, 3 June, 2005, 10:25 GMT | Helen Briggs BBC News science reporter

[planetesimal]

[Revelation 911]

why not the mastadon? - frozen examples exist

[libertylover]

But the scientists hope to ... "build" a Neanderthal from their genetic blueprint.

Sigh. As well as being a good read, Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park has a message. It is: Don't do this. Even if you can, don't do this.

God knows what kind of monsters they'll accidentally create. The truly scary ones are probably microscopic and could spread like wildfire killings millions before a means to combat it is figured out. I mean, maybe we'll find out why the Neanderthals went extinct, and maybe we won't like the answer.

[R. Scott]

I won’t mind if they bring back Ursus Spelaeus, but please leave the Arctodus Simus DNA alone.

[Mariposaman]

Perhaps someday, God willing,advanced DNA sequencing will allow us to rebuild Michael Jackson's nose.

[irishtenor]

Didn't they just find soft tissue in a dinosaur bone?

[dsc]

"Arctodus Simus"

Man, why are people so stingy with graphics sizes?

I couldn't find a single representation that was large enough for me to see well.

[The Great RJ]

Could cloned Neanderthals vote in US elections? Paging Dr. Dean...

[beavus]

The truly scary ones are probably microscopic and could spread like wildfire killings millions before a means to combat it is figured out. I mean, maybe we'll find out why the Neanderthals went extinct, and maybe we won't like the answer.

Or not.

When will our culture ever get over the 1950's scifi B-movie paranoia?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

 

 

Guys! You know the rules around FR... picures...

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[Verginius Rufus]

If they ever find a well-preserved cave bear (like the Iceman found in the Alps on the Italian/Austrian border a few years ago) they might find some Neanderthal DNA in the bear's stomach.

Prehistoric Europeans seemed to think it was dangerous to say the name for "bear" so they used euphemisms. In English and other Germanic languages the word "bear" originally meant "the brown one," and in the Slavic languages the word for bear meant "the honey eater."

[Young Werther]

If that were possible would it mean that he would become,

GULP! A Brown-noser! wakka wakka!

[Porterville]

[R. Scott]

Man, why are people so stingy with graphics sizes?

Band width?

[fso301]

It is highly unlikely that viable genetic material will ever be recovered from fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old

What about from the soft tissue recently removed from a T-Rex?

[jas3]

Wooly Mammoths have already been sequenced. In fact, they have been compared to both the Indian and the African elephants gene sequences to determine the "relatedness" of the WM to today's two elephant species.

Care to make a guess as to which is closer to the Mammoth?


jas3

[badgerlandjim]

http://www.cecalc.ula.ve/bioinformatica/oso/Arctodus_simus.jpg

[Joe 6-pack]

I don't know if you guys can bear this on a Saturday, but if you stop cloning around for a few minutes, maybe you could take the time to come out of your caves and reply to this thread to help splice things up around here.

Frankly, I think the work these guys are doing is in-gene-uous, and will help fossil-itate our understanding of our fore-bears. Perhaps they can even give us some insight as to our puncestors. The work they are doing now may be somewhat rudimentary, but it's almost certain to evolve.

[Grammy]

your puns are simply unbearable....

" perhaps one day being able to "build" a Neanderthal from their genetic blueprint."

don't bother. I already know a few, and they aren't worth duplicating.

[SlowBoat407]

I go with the old wisdom that says we can't have archaic and breed it, too.