Calie Gober

Melissa Hardy
BIOL 1010
19 April 2013
De-extinction as a Means of Bringing Back Life.

Advances in technology have given us the ability to take these "bodily, but not
genetically extinct" animals to a whole new world of possibilities. Through decoding DNA and
finding living viable options for surrogacy its just a means of filling in what makes the extinct
animal. By taking out and replacing these chunks of DNA into a surrogate mother it is feasible to
recreate a once extinct animal. Like in the passenger pigeons DNA can be extracted from
specimens, examined and then having the process of finding its closest living relative to play as a
means of bringing back the DNA via in vitro fertilization. Although the hope of bringing
something as far back as a dinosaur isnt a possibility there is still hope for animals that have
been long extinct like the wooly mammoth, or helping those creatures on the edge of extinction.
Even if we can successful get a fetus to grow, we still dont know the gestation of all
these animals. For example, while an elephants gestation period is twenty-two months a wooly
mammoths because of its larger stature might require more time in the womb to grow properly
(Unless we want a bunch of premature mammoths roaming around). There is also the problem
with the founder effect. Unless the goal is to creature a single living thing, there raises the
questions on how these things will breed. If we can get the baby to full term, and mature into
adulthood with the plan to reintroduced them into their natural habitat and if they are unable to
breed with other species and then we run the risk of dramatically decreasing their gene pool. This
decreased gene pool could result in genetic recessive traits that can lower the animals quality of
life. Should we really bring back things purely to see if we can if we dont have the means to
provide them with the ability to prosper? The only way to ensure there is enough genetic
difference so this doesnt become an issue is to get lots of samples, but even this would require
lots of them and research to do. Not every specimen will have DNA that would be good to use
and trying to find them is like finding a needle in a haystack. These animals also went extinct for
a reason. For example, the dodo aside from being hunted by people it was also preyed upon by
animals introduced into its ecosystem. Since it evolved in an environment where there were no
natural predators it wasnt adapted to means of defending itself. The reintroduction of these
animals into the wild predator, or prey-like animals could have unknown repercussions, or just
make them go extinct again (And besides proving the point of We can does this with the
mandatory mad scientist laughter accompanying it) this doesnt really to do much and could
potentially be a huge waste of time, not to mention money. The other option would be to
introduce these animals into zoo settings, in a controlled location where they can be held under
observation. This option would allow people to study these creatures along with having people
being able to see relics of the past. Putting the animals into this setting would allow for them to
not have to provide a large genetic diversity, except if they were planning on breeding programs
within the enclosures.
However, with the bad does come good. Bringing these animals back could give us a
better understanding on why they went extinct. Sometimes it goes beyond being naturally
unlucky in the environment, and human interaction. There is also the hope that bringing back
genes that got eliminated in living organizations can help change their gene pool and give them
greater diversity. For instance, cheetahs are now showing signs of the Bottleneck Effect. If we
could successfully introduce more genes this could potentially reverse the effects and bring their
population size back up. Albeit some of the animals did go extinct, but when they were alive
they played specific roles in their environment. They added to the biodiversity and helped with
flora or keeping down a population of another species through predation.
Personally, I think this shows great strides in what we are now able to do. Its like
something out of a science fiction movie. But I do think that more focus should be put into
conserving living animals instead bringing back extinct ones. We already have lots of animals
that are on their way to being extinct or are critically endangered, and with this technology it
would be possible to bring them back and restore their numbers. Aside from bringing back
endangered animals costing more money and involving more research to bring back; it could also
simply not work. At least with attempting to restore what damage has been done to a species that
is already living there is a greater chance of the means of in vitro fertilization being successful.
Whether or not this idea makes it into a lab, people are still having a major impact on their
environments and if there is the chance to reverse some of what we have done, we should take it.