Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Reversing Extinction

Here is a very detailed article about the possibility of recreating extinct animals. It does a good job of describing necessary steps. It does a rather poorer job of of imagining the kind of technological leaps the future may hold ... but I'm sure you'll have no trouble taking over from there. This is good reading for SF fans and writers.
Tags: nature, science, science fiction
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  • 11 comments
just_the_ash

just_the_ash

January 8 2009, 14:21:08 UTC 12 years ago

OH GOD, NO. NOT ANOTHER STROM THURMOND!
fayanora

fayanora

January 8 2009, 18:07:45 UTC 12 years ago

I want a pet dodo bird someday! Also looking forward to wooly mammoths, too. We may need them again someday, if the global warming suddenly turns to an ice age.
ysabetwordsmith

Yes!

ysabetwordsmith

January 8 2009, 18:16:28 UTC 12 years ago

Of all the extinct animals, I think woolly mammoths top my list, for spiritual reasons. But I also think that humans have a responsibility to restore species that we wiped out, or helped to wipe out. That includes mammoths, dodos, and a lot of others.
fayanora

Re: Yes!

fayanora

January 8 2009, 18:57:06 UTC 12 years ago

Sabre-tooth tiger? :-)

Passenger pigeon!
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Yes!

ysabetwordsmith

January 8 2009, 19:10:26 UTC 12 years ago

Carolina parakeet:
http://www.ivorybill.com/g/carolinaparakeet.htm

What the heck, let's just cut to the chase:
http://nevarraven.com/_extinct/
fayanora

Re: Yes!

fayanora

January 8 2009, 19:14:43 UTC 12 years ago

Actually, the thylocine is at the top of my list of animals to ressurrect.
laneth

laneth

January 8 2009, 20:20:26 UTC 12 years ago

The problem I have with this is we should be looking at the species' that we
've wiped out in the last few hundred years since our technology really started to advance, and then work backwards.

They selected the Neanderthal - why? Why would ye even contemplate bringing such a being back from the dead for? Natural Selection caused their extinction because Homo Sapiens were the dominant species. Wouldn't bringing them back, with their non-advanced communication, technological skill and capacity to reason make them prime candidates for "humans in zoos" or "habitats" where they can hunt freely?


Aside from them, in this world where there is rapidly less and less room for anything besides Humans, where the hell are we going to put them all? Truly, if they recreate the more aggressive species, they'll have to cry when it backfires and the instincts of a Sabre Toothed Tiger clan starts to hunt in suburbia - it'd be like take-away for them.

I shakes my head at this. The only feasible choice in their list, in my opinion, is the Gorilla. They are still kinda around - the environment hasn't suffered the loss of that species just yet, and so could probably support their return to decent numbers.

The Tassie Tiger, or the Dodo, or the Sabre Toothed Tiger? What effect is it going to have on the world to reintroduce these species?
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

January 8 2009, 22:03:53 UTC 12 years ago

>> Why would ye even contemplate bringing such a being back from the dead for? <<

Curiosity. They might reveal much about our species' background, being relatives.

>> Natural Selection caused their extinction because Homo Sapiens were the dominant species.<<

Maybe. Or maybe we contributed significantly to their extinction.

>> Wouldn't bringing them back, with their non-advanced communication, technological skill and capacity to reason <<

We don't know for sure that they were less advanced in those areas. They may simply have been less violent. Different interpretations have been proposed based on the few facts we have.

>> make them prime candidates for "humans in zoos" or "habitats" where they can hunt freely? <<

This is plausible. I'm not sure I'd trust humans with a Neanderthal. They don't even treat each other very well.
lord_caramac

lord_caramac

January 10 2009, 06:52:27 UTC 12 years ago

The problem with extinction is not the loss of some big furry beasts, but the loss of unnumbered little snails, butterflies, crabs, mosses, ferns, funghi, all those lifeforms that nobody really notices, and yet they form the basis of any ecosystem.

Hell, we destroy entire ecosystems, just for profit.
ysabetwordsmith

Yes!

ysabetwordsmith

January 10 2009, 06:55:53 UTC 12 years ago

This is absolutely true. It's handled as an impressive subthread in Amy Thomson's novel Through Alien Eyes.
aquaeri

aquaeri

January 10 2009, 09:44:05 UTC 12 years ago

That's a very good article for New Scientist. I think if anything they're a bit optimistic - species recreation is not really about technological leaps so much as about whether there is sufficient remaining genetic material of extinct species. If important information is lost, no amount of technological progress can recover it.

  • Photographs

    I took some pictures of my yard today. Read about what makes a good wildlife yard and Fieldhaven as habitat. The larger brush pile is still…

  • Birdfeeding

    Today is partly sunny and delightfully mild. I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of house finches and a few sparrows. I walked around the yard…

  • Fieldhaven as Habitat

    If you follow my posts on gardening, birdfeeding, and photos, then you know that I garden for wildlife. Looking at the YardMap parameters, here…