Recreating Extinct Creatures
By Colin Canavan
So, to start things off. No, it would be impossible to copy Jurassic park. Haha, I’m crushing dreams! There are too many things wrong with the process that it would just be impossible to do with dinosaurs, but we may be able to do the process to other creatures such as the mammoth or the dodo bird.
So, to start things off. No, it would be impossible to copy Jurassic park. Haha, I’m crushing dreams! There are too many things wrong with the process that it would just be impossible to do with dinosaurs, but we may be able to do the process to other creatures such as the mammoth or the dodo bird.
Bringing Back the Mammoth
The wooly mammoth is a long extinct creature that heavily resembles the modern-day elephant. Part of the reason the wooly mammoth could have gone extinct was that ancient humans hunted them to extinction. But now we are trying to bring them back.
Meet Lyuba, the young wooly mammoth who lived 42,000 years ago in Siberia. Lyuba was said to have died due to choking to death in mud, isn’t that fun! Lyuba was found by some reindeer herders in 2007. But there was also another woolly mammoth who also choked to death, also in mud. The second woolly mammoth was named Khroma. Khroma was found in 2008 by mammoth ivory hunters. Khroma also lived around the time Lyuba did. Khroma however, had some of her fur on her legs left. The fur had a brownish-orange tinge to it. This could help scientists determine what the Wooly Mammoth would have looked like.
Now, about bringing back those glorified elephants. It turns out we are closer to achieving this then you might of thought. So, something you have to know is that DNA is one of the big players in this. And luckily, we have mammoth DNA. Remember Lyuba and Khroma? Both have well preserved DNA samples. One of them even had blood oozing out of it when it was found! Scientists in South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation and other places are now working on bringing back the wooly mammoth. But there is a catch. We can not make a full 100% wooly mammoth. The “mammoth” would have to be gestated in a creature similar to the wooly mammoth and the elephant has been chosen for this. But this comes with another problem. The elephant gestation period can last up to 2 years. And not to mention that many other things can go wrong. Like the possibility of birth defects or miscarriages. However,in the end, it is possible to create the mammoth, it is just really hard.
Bringing Back The Dodo
The Dodo bird is an extinct bird that lived on Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The Dodo bird, as you probably know, was hunted to extinction by man, too. However this only happened 400 years ago. And we do have remains of the dodo, mostly skeletons, but we have one special case - The Oxford Dodo. The Oxford Dodo, which is the only soft tissue of the dodo left in the world. The oxford Dodo was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun somewhere around the 1700s. The Dodo bird was probably so easy to hunt because they probably never had the experience of being hunted before or the need to be worried about being hunted. The dodo would have been like a very friendly chicken. And they could have the possibility of being fun pets. But they would not be like how they were in the famous paintings, all plump and thick. It is thought the reason for this is over feeding (well someone was going to have one as a pet).
Meet Lyuba, the young wooly mammoth who lived 42,000 years ago in Siberia. Lyuba was said to have died due to choking to death in mud, isn’t that fun! Lyuba was found by some reindeer herders in 2007. But there was also another woolly mammoth who also choked to death, also in mud. The second woolly mammoth was named Khroma. Khroma was found in 2008 by mammoth ivory hunters. Khroma also lived around the time Lyuba did. Khroma however, had some of her fur on her legs left. The fur had a brownish-orange tinge to it. This could help scientists determine what the Wooly Mammoth would have looked like.
Now, about bringing back those glorified elephants. It turns out we are closer to achieving this then you might of thought. So, something you have to know is that DNA is one of the big players in this. And luckily, we have mammoth DNA. Remember Lyuba and Khroma? Both have well preserved DNA samples. One of them even had blood oozing out of it when it was found! Scientists in South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation and other places are now working on bringing back the wooly mammoth. But there is a catch. We can not make a full 100% wooly mammoth. The “mammoth” would have to be gestated in a creature similar to the wooly mammoth and the elephant has been chosen for this. But this comes with another problem. The elephant gestation period can last up to 2 years. And not to mention that many other things can go wrong. Like the possibility of birth defects or miscarriages. However,in the end, it is possible to create the mammoth, it is just really hard.
Bringing Back The Dodo
The Dodo bird is an extinct bird that lived on Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The Dodo bird, as you probably know, was hunted to extinction by man, too. However this only happened 400 years ago. And we do have remains of the dodo, mostly skeletons, but we have one special case - The Oxford Dodo. The Oxford Dodo, which is the only soft tissue of the dodo left in the world. The oxford Dodo was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun somewhere around the 1700s. The Dodo bird was probably so easy to hunt because they probably never had the experience of being hunted before or the need to be worried about being hunted. The dodo would have been like a very friendly chicken. And they could have the possibility of being fun pets. But they would not be like how they were in the famous paintings, all plump and thick. It is thought the reason for this is over feeding (well someone was going to have one as a pet).
Bringing Back the Dinosaurs
The Dinosaurs are some of the most famous creatures in the modern world, and their image has changed over the years. Before, dinosaurs were considered to be slow, and dumb, and well, glorified lizards. But now, our idea of them has changed; we now see them as active, and well…like normal creatures. While I would love the idea of bringing back some dinosaurs like the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex, or the Velociraptor. I would most like to bring back my favorite dinosaur, the Suchomimus. But is it possible? Ehhhhhh…
The Dinosaurs are some of the most famous creatures in the modern world, and their image has changed over the years. Before, dinosaurs were considered to be slow, and dumb, and well, glorified lizards. But now, our idea of them has changed; we now see them as active, and well…like normal creatures. While I would love the idea of bringing back some dinosaurs like the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex, or the Velociraptor. I would most like to bring back my favorite dinosaur, the Suchomimus. But is it possible? Ehhhhhh…
In Jurassic Park, the most important factor was the DNA. While this is mostly true, DNA is really important. But the way they got the dna is not going to work. While there have been recordings of very, very old mosquitoes stuck in amber, like the new species Priscoculex burmanicus. There also has to be the rare fact that this mosquito had a last meal, and the creature has to be a dinosaur. And the fact that the Amber and dino blood had the perfect conditions to stay perfectly preserved for many millions of years for us humans to find. And not to forget - DNA can only stay perfect for so long before it starts to deteriorate, which is 5 million years if your lucky. And really? You are using frog DNA to fill in the gaps in DNA? They are pretty far away from each other on the animal family tree. So Jurassic Park is out of the picture.
But there is another way, just with chickens, and reverse engineering. The amazing chicken, this small, little fluffy farm bird. It can provide eggs! But most importantly this bird is a relative of the Tyrannosaurus. And people love to eat this thing. But these little guys can also be useful for our little dino de-extinction project. In fact, we have sort of already started. A team of scientists have already reverse engineered a chicken embryo to have a snout, like its dino ancestors, by tinkering with its genetics.
But there is another way, just with chickens, and reverse engineering. The amazing chicken, this small, little fluffy farm bird. It can provide eggs! But most importantly this bird is a relative of the Tyrannosaurus. And people love to eat this thing. But these little guys can also be useful for our little dino de-extinction project. In fact, we have sort of already started. A team of scientists have already reverse engineered a chicken embryo to have a snout, like its dino ancestors, by tinkering with its genetics.
But the team had no intention of actual hatching this boyo. Oh no, no, no. Instead of doing this amazing thing, they chose to just leave it as so. Which is sad, but hey, if it has been done, it can be done again. Just on a higher scale, which might be hard. The team with the dino-faced-chicken (which I am now dubbing “Chickenosaurus”) did this while they were in a project to find the mysterious origins of the beak. If we were to carry with this plan of the Chickenosaurus, then with trial and error, we could actually recreate a dinosaur! Which is cool. But on problem, which isn’t that bad. We might not be able to make to big thundering cool dinos, like the Tyrannosaurus, or the Brachiosaurus, really just the smaller ones, like the Velociraptor, or Deinonychus. But those are fine, right? Right? Yeah. they’re cool.
So In the end, we can bring back these dead things, but this also raises questions, ethical ones. Because some people think that this is wrong. But Dinosaurs are cool. They think we have no right to bring these creatures back from the dead, but they are dead because of some unfair extinction rock.
So In the end, we can bring back these dead things, but this also raises questions, ethical ones. Because some people think that this is wrong. But Dinosaurs are cool. They think we have no right to bring these creatures back from the dead, but they are dead because of some unfair extinction rock.
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