De-extinction is the process of bringing back to life an extinct animal species. It’s an idea that’s been around for a while. But it was perhaps entirely propelled into the public consciousness by the 1993 film Jurassic Park. In contrast, resurrected dinosaurs remain firmly in the realm of science fiction.
The de-extinction of other animals is a much closer horizon. We live through Earth’s sixth mass extinction period, the Holocene extinction. This mass extinction closely correlates to human activity through hunting, deforestation, pollution, climate change, and other side effects of human expansion.
De-extinction could be one way of resurrecting lost species and protecting those most at risk today. Recent developments in genome sequencing, genetic engineering, and cloning scientists have resurrected recently extinct species. They have their sights set on those lost further back in time. Scientists estimate that 5 billion species have come and gone off this planet. They use revolutionary new genetic techniques to bring back some of these species.
While it’s normal for species to die out over time because of evolution or a cataclysmic event. Some scientists think the Earth is entering a new age of mass extinction, called the Anthropocene or Holocene extinction, caused by humans. Animals, plants, and insects are dying out 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than ever before, with dozens of species going extinct daily. Some scientists estimate that 30-50% of all species could be headed toward extinction by the end of the century!
How to bring back extinct animals?
If a mammal lived within the last few thousand years, how would we bring them back? Three main routes are currently being explored in the push to de-extinct animals. They all have pros and cons.
Back-breeding
We could try back breeding if we had lots of time and a few acres of land. Back breeding is when lost traits are bred back into living species. Converting an existing species back into a previous form. Back breeding is like reverse engineering evolution; dog breeders work out particular traits, like body shape or coat color. To understand this method, let’s look at researchers in South Africa to recreate the Quagga.
An extinct subspecies of zebra is Quagga. Quaggas and zebras are pretty similar, but where zebras are covered in stripes. Quaggas only have stripes on the front half of their bodies. They also have brown coloring on their rear. They were common in South Africa until European settlers hunted them to extinction in the late 19th century. It is because zebras are a closely related species to the extinct quagga. They are the starting point of the study.
To begin recreating the quagga, scientists select individual zebras that express the same or very similar traits to the extinct species, such as zebras with fewer stripes on the back half of their bodies or zebras with more brown coloring on their back half. Then once these individual animals have been identified, they are bred together. Any offspring that have inherited the desired traits will be bred again.
Hopefully, they will produce a new generation with a mix of extinct species traits. This process must be repeated until the resulting animal is as close to the extinct species. The back breeding project started over 30 years ago. At that time, it produced multiple breeding groups of near quaggas. After several generations of selective breeding, the animals aren’t the same as the originals. But they have the half-stripes and brown rears of their extinct relatives.
There are some downsides and challenges to back breeding. That means it might not be a suitable approach for every animal. First, we’d need a close relative of the extinct species to act as our starting point. This may not be possible for animals many extinct thousands of years ago. It’s also a long process. The gestation period for a zebra, for example, is 12 months.
If we need to repeat the breeding process several times over, it could be years or even decades before a herd of our extinct species is ready. It’s an imprecise process. However, genome sequencing and in vitro fertilization can help breeders select what gets passed. There are other options if we don’t have a starter species or don’t have time to breed multiple generations.
Cloning
Another route to de-extinction is cloning. Clones are genetic replicas of another organism and always arise in nature. Bacteria clone themselves as a means of reproduction, and identical twins are technically clones of each other. But cloning can also be done in the lab. We’ve cloned lots of animals, including buffalo dogs and camels. So how could scientists use cloning to bring back a long-dead species? The most reliable method is probably SCNT or somatic cell nuclear transfer.
It is the method pioneered by the creators of Dolly the Sheep, which is the first cloned mammal. Surprisingly scientists have already attempted this method. In 1999, researchers captured the last surviving Pyrenean ibex, a female named Celia. They obtained skin biopsies and froze the tissue in liquid nitrogen. Then in 2009, those skin cells were used to clone Celia in the first-ever case of actual de-extinction.
- First, the nuclei from the frozen skin cells were removed and injected into donor eggs taken from domestic goats, which had their nuclei removed. The process of embryonic development was started by adding some chemicals and a jolt of electricity. After a few days of growth in the lab, the embryos were implanted into a surrogate mother, either a Spanish ibex or an ibex goat hybrid.
The resulting fetuses had the same DNA as the extinct animal. From the 208 embryos, the researchers implanted only seven pregnancies resulted, and one ibex made it to term. It was a huge accomplishment. The first-ever extinct animal was brought back into existence. However, the baby ibex died almost immediately from respiratory failure. Most embryos derived from clones don’t develop properly, and scientists don’t know why.
Research suggests that it’s not one stage of the cloning process causing damage to the resulting embryos. Many, if not all, states contribute. Chemicals start embryonic development by moving the nucleus from one cell to another. But scientists are not ready to give up quickly instead of setting their sights on an even loftier goal.
In 2019 a breakthrough in bringing back this incredible animal occurred. When a team in Japan successfully transferred the nucleus from a frozen mammoth cell into the egg of a mouse. The nucleus came from a 28,000-year-old preserved mammoth named Yuka. The goal of the experiment was not to create some mammoth mouse hybrid. It was to see if this ancient DNA had the potential to be re-awakened.
Could the cellular machinery in a mouse egg fix the damaged parts of the mammoth DNA and kick-start the DNA replication necessary for embryonic development? If possible, that would suggest the potential for harvested preserved mammoth DNA to be brought back to life through cloning. The mouse cell machinery did manage to fix some parts of the damaged DNA.
There were some very early signs of the mechanics that underpin DNA replication. But ultimately, the mouse egg could only do so much. The mammoth DNA was too severely damaged. So it’s nearly impossible to reconstitute enough to bring it back to life. Now cloning a mammoth is still a far-off dream. But research like this adds to the field of knowledge that might get us there one day.
The ideal cloning scenario starts with finding an intact frozen cell. The last Mammoth went extinct nearly 4000 years ago. Permafrost does a decent job preserving genetic material compared to the tropical island where dodos last nested. So, it’ll be easier to scrounge material to make a mammoth than a dodo. But most scientists doubt an animal cell could survive several millennia under the Siberian Tundra.
CRISPR/Genome editing
We could try another approach, which has back breeding and cloning elements. Genetic engineering, specifically CRISPR technology, is a new technology that opens up options for de-extinction. CRISPR-Cas9 is a molecular scissor that can cut DNA at a pre-programmed position. It means strands of DNA can be added, removed, or edited at specific points in the DNA.
Scientists could insert an extinct animal’s genes into a close relative’s DNA, creating a hybrid with the extinct species’ phenotype and physical attributes. We’d need to sequence the extinct animal genome to determine its genetic code. Scientists use tests to determine which genes are linked to the phenotype of the extinct species. If we compare the extinct species’ genetic code to its closest living relative, we can determine where they differ.
Finally, we could copy and paste the genes we want from the existing animal into the host animal’s DNA. Researchers at Harvard University are trying to use this CRISPR technology to splice mammoth genes into Asian elephant DNA. But it’s a monumental task. There are around 1.4 million known gene mutations separating mammoths and Asian elephants.
Not all of the mutations will relate to the mammoth phenotype. It will take a while to determine which mammoth genes must be swapped into elephant DNA to recreate a woolly mammoth. But the idea may be the most promising yet, and one day. We may see the first baby mammoth to live in 10,000 years.
Why is de-extinction important?
We might want to de-extinct a range of different species for many reasons. One big motivation for de-extinction is to increase biodiversity. Having a variety of animals, plants, and insects in an ecosystem is essential. All of these different creatures perform different vital roles.
- Predators like wolves and bears keep populations of smaller mammals in check.
- Beavers build dams that slow down rivers to create safe environments for other water-loving animals.
- Pollinators like bees and wasps help plants reproduce.
If one animal dies out, it can cause knock-on effects destabilizing the entire ecosystem. De-extinct animals are essential to managing and maintaining their original ecosystems. It could help return those ecosystems to health. Another reason we might want to bring back lost species is to learn from them. Many medicines and technological innovations have been developed from initial discoveries in nature.
Extinct species may hold answers to some of the most puzzling research questions. De-extinction techniques can also be used in the race to save endangered species. There may be a moral obligation to bring back animals that humans are responsible for eradicating. The extinction rate now is thought to be a thousand times faster than before humans became the planet’s dominant species. A quarter of all mammals now are at risk of extinction.
Should we de-extinct animals?
Although none of the methods are perfect, they certainly bring us closer to the de-extinction of lost species and protecting and reviving endangered animal populations. Before bringing back everything from mammoths to thylacines to dodos, we might want to pause and decide whether to bring back any lost species. There are some risks to creating a de-extinction Safari park, as cool as it might be. While reintroducing recently extinct species might prove beneficial to existing ecosystems.
Long-dead species could end up doing more harm than good. It is because of the changes those ecosystems have undergone in the intervening period. It could create similar problems when releasing non-native species into new areas. The poisonous Cane toad was introduced to Australia to control the grey-backed cane beetle. The toad quickly spread and pushed out native toad populations.
An extinct species might out-compete one that has developed in its absence. Or the ecosystems that once supported an extinct species might no longer be a suitable home. The Chinese river dolphin was polluted out of the Yangtze River, and things haven’t improved since they wouldn’t survive there today.
Scientists can successfully and reliably bring back lost species, particularly those that have been extinct for thousands of years. They will need to consider whether these risks they want to take. Every day between 30 and 150 animal species die out on Earth for good. Alongside conservation efforts, de-extinction could be a potential avenue to undo some damage humans have enacted on the planet.
One of the most mysterious and strange animals ever living on earth was the Thylacine found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. It was the largest carnivorous marsupial with a body resembling a cross between a cat and a dog, also known as the Tasmanian tiger. It was wiped from the continent of Australia 3,000 years ago and survived in Tasmania until the 1930s when humans finally hunted it to extinction.
Over recent years there have been many reports of Thylacine sightings in the jungles of Tasmania, giving some hope that a few individuals remain. But these sightings are almost all exaggerated or are cases of mistaken identity. Sadly thylacine is still very much extinct. But it may not be forever. Geneticists are working to resurrect this enigmatic animal with CRISPR and cloning.
Limitation of de-extinction
However, there are limitations. It won’t be possible to bring back extinct species with current technology relying heavily on DNA and well-preserved tissue. We’ll unlikely be able to de-extinct anything that died out more than 10,000 years ago. It is because DNA doesn’t last that long. When an organism dies, cells break down, exposing DNA in the nucleus to damage by enzymes and microorganisms. It means that in ancient tissue. DNA is either non-existent or only present in tiny amounts. So for better or worse, that rules out the dinosaurs.
In May 2013, Russian researchers found a perfectly preserved Woolly Mammoth carcass frozen in the ice on an island off Siberia as if pulled straight out of a meat locker. The animal’s body still had fresh red muscle tissue and the real prize, liquid blood. The female mammoth lay there like Snow White for four thousand to ten thousand years before the Russians excavated.
Scientists have cracked much of the mammoth’s genetic code from preserved hair. But the potential to clone the animals isn’t possible without living cells. This mammoth is currently being examined for that. If the scientists don’t find viable cells in their specimen, there’s more than one way to skin a mammoth.
The concept of bringing extinct species back from the void had titillated scientists long before those crafty velociraptors jiggled doorknobs in Jurassic Park. Scientists recently determined that DNA can remain intact for about 6.8 million years. But dinosaurs haven’t been around for about 65 million years. So you will never have to escape a velociraptor. Instead, scientists can attempt to revive the only vanished species that recently died within the past few tens of thousands of years.
This is fitting, considering that’s the same time, humans got serious about hunting, expanding, and general domination. Many proponents of de-extinction think that if these species were driven to extinction by humans, then it’s a moral obligation to restore them. It’s also much harder to de-extinct birds or reptiles compared to mammals. It is because we know much more about mammalian reproduction than birds and reptiles.
More Articles:
How Plants Caused First Mass Extinction?
The Reasons Why Elephants Have Tusks
Why Do Walruses Get Their Tusks?
References:
Yin, Steph (20 March 2017). “We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species. Is It Worth the Cost?”.
Sherkow, Jacob. “What If Extinction Is Not Forever?”.
Shapiro, Beth (2016-08-09). “Pathways to de-extinction: how close can we get to the resurrection of an extinct species?”.
“Should we bring extinct species back from the dead?”.
Wadman, Meredith. “Dolly: A decade on.”
Palermo, Giulia; Ricci, Clarisse G.; McCammon, J. Andrew (April 2019). “The invisible dance of CRISPR-Cas9.
“De-Extinction Debate: Should We Bring Back the Woolly Mammoth?”.
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