Should they clone extinct animals?

[MrDawn]

Do you think it's a good idea for scientists to try and bring back extinct animals like the Wooly Mammoth or the Tasmanian Tiger?

Why or why not?

 

[passenger]

No.
Maybe there's a reason that these animals are extinct: climate, food supply, unique diseases, etc, who knows? Maybe we've got enough problems without trying to dodge 1000-acre dinosaurs.

Seems like maybe these "scientists" might have more beneficial things to do instead of trying to climb Mt. Everest just to see if they can.

 

[Mendalla]

We are driving existing species to extinction at a scary rate. How about we stop doing that, then we can worry about the ones that are already extinct?

 

[Dead2009]

They're trying to clone dinosaurs to bring them back to life and I doubt that honestly would work.

 

[MrDawn]

They're trying to clone dinosaurs to bring them back to life and I doubt that honestly would work.

Even if they did manage to bring them back, I don't believe the environment or the ecosystem would support them for very long.

 

[Mendalla]

They're trying to clone dinosaurs to bring them back to life and I doubt that honestly would work.

I never heard that they were trying for dinosaurs. Most of the species I have heard about were more recent, like mammoths, where we actually have DNA and fairly intact specimens. Some, like the dodo, ones we ourselves did in. DNA degenerates badly over time and even among human species, we only have good genomes for Neanderthals, Denisovans, and ourselves. Nothing earlier.

 

[Dead2009]

I never heard that they were trying for dinosaurs. Most of the species I have heard about were more recent, like mammoths, where we actually have DNA and fairly intact specimens. Some, like the dodo, ones we ourselves did in. DNA degenerates badly over time and even among human species, we only have good genomes for Neanderthals, Denisovans, and ourselves. Nothing earlier.

Yeah theyve been talking about it for a while now

Could we build a real-life Jurassic Park?

Advances in science could make it possible to bring the dinosaurs back to life.

www.livescience.com

The mammoth is just the first step

 

[EllieCat]

Revive the Dodo.

 

[Webster]

Do you think it's a good idea for scientists to try and bring back extinct animals like the Wooly Mammoth or the Tasmanian Tiger?

Why or why not?

 

[Mendalla]

Yeah theyve been talking about it for a while now

Could we build a real-life Jurassic Park?

Advances in science could make it possible to bring the dinosaurs back to life.

www.livescience.com

The mammoth is just the first step

That's all fairly speculative, though. The mammoth is much more likely given we do actually have the mammoth genome courtesy of the frozen mammoths from the permafrost in Siberia. And there's other animals from the same time period where we have similar sources of material. So I am not expecting to see dinos walking around any time soon, but maybe mammoths.

However, my take on the ethics of it remains what I said above. We are still sending species into extinction, both directly through hunting and habitat destruction and indirectly though the changes we are making to the climate. Our priority needs to be to stop that, not bringing back species.

One example:

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/vaquita

 

[MrDawn]

Even if the technology were perfected to clone a dinosaur. The earth is a lot different now then it was millions of years ago. They wouldn't survive.

It’s doubtful. Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Triceratops for example, lived in the Cretaceous Period 145-66 million years ago (whatever Jurassic Park would have you believe). The average global temperature at the time was about 4ºC higher than today, with much less difference between the temperature of the equator and the poles. The sea temperature averaged 37ºC, so even tropical seas today would be too cold for marine life of the time.

But land dinosaurs would be quite comfortable with the climate of tropical and semi-tropical parts of the world. That is, until they all died of altitude sickness. Studies of air bubbles trapped in amber show that the atmosphere of the Cretaceous may have had up to 35 per cent oxygen, compared to today’s 21 per cent. For T. Rex this would feel like he was at the base camp of Everest. In such thin air dinosaurs would be too breathless to chase hapless tourists.

Could a dinosaur survive in today’s climate conditions?

www.sciencefocus.com

 

[Doc Nova]

We are the reason they went extinct to begin with. Bring them back to their home, maybe they'll help our failing planet.