De-Extinction

[Deleted User]MaverickLegend (deleted user)
in General

As some of you may or may not know Colossal Bioscience has revived the Dire Wolf a previously extinct species. They have plans to revive more extinct species such as the wooly mammoth in 2028. Is this a good or bad thing in your opinion? Are we going too far?

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Comments

  • TxTomTxTom

    Interesting. Not good or bad. Dire wolf went extinct 13,000 years ago.

  • zaleazalea

  • TxTomTxTom

    It's fine. They're bringing something back from the very late Cenozoic period that, from Earth's timeline, just disappeared a couple of seconds ago.

    It's not like something from the Mesozoic or Paleozoic is being revived, which was quite a different place back then.

  • JubalJubal

    I'm all in favor of bringing back species which are gone because of human beings. The Dodo bird comes to mind.

    Animals like the dire wolf or wooly mammoth ... well, humanity may have contributed to those going away. COuldn't hurt to try. But I'd be horrified at trying to bring back dinosaurs or other truly ancient animals.

  • JasonCuddlesJasonCuddles

    DNA doesn't last forever, so we have no dino DNA to actually use. I also wouldn't be surprised if the more recent animals being "brought back" aren't actually quite the same as the ones that went extinct.

    But then I haven't actually looked at this new story . Maybe they have found complete DNA now and could actually use it. There were multiple hurdles last I looked.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod

    Nice. In theory we could use this idea to help 'speed up' evolution of threatened species so they can cope better with changing conditions.

    It's only one small step in a very long and vastly complex process which has been running for decades already, but it's a newsworthy one. According to the article I read the boffins are being extremely mature and sensible about security.

  • TxTomTxTom

    In genetics, it's quality over quantity.

    Dire wolf and grey wolf DNA is 99.5% identical. Scientists identified those few variations and then edited those into gray wolf DNA using CRISPR gene-editing technology.

    Compare that with human and chimpanzee DNA which is 97% identical. That 3% variation has given humans the ability to achieve space travel. Quality, not quantity.

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

    “Welcome to Westworld, where nothing can go wrong… go wrong… go wrong.”

  • [Deleted User]easylike (deleted user)

    From a Biblical standpoint, mankind becoming Godlike, No Good. From a science standpoint, mankind disrupting nature also No Good. No one knows where it will all end but I have a bad feeling

  • KrissiAKrissiA

    I want a pet direwolf, those pups are cute as shit. I’ll take TWO wooly mammoths please, my wolfy friend needs playmates.

  • [Deleted User]WriterGF (deleted user)

    I just saw this morning that other scientists are questioning the accuracy of this report.

  • BearBear

    I see more movie franchise options coming about. lol.

  • TxTomTxTom

    This thread brought to you by
    Jurassic World Rebirth.

    In theaters July 2

  • [Deleted User]easylike (deleted user)

    @WriterGF: That doesn't surprise me at all. In this day and age, I've learned to "believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see". I remember that damn Freddy Krueger looked awful real to me lol

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    Iirc, the Earth's atmosphere is no longer capable of supporting dinosaurs. The oxygen concentration was higher in those days.

    Given how things keep going, it's good for us to know how to bring species back from extinction. To say we're not doing a good job of protecting endangered species would be an understatement. We're doing a good job of endangering them if they're inconvenient or get in the way.

    All are gone, all but one
    No contest, nowhere to run
    No more left, only one
    This is it; this is the Countdown to Extinction

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    If they can’t restore bee populations than everything else is simply hubris.

  • Gamer1992Gamer1992

    I propose the White Rhinoceros should be next on the list

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    @CharlesGrove

    If they can’t restore bee populations than everything else is simply hubris.

    They can. But they won't because it might cut into corporate profits.

  • lovingspoonfulllovingspoonfull
    edited April 2025

    I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking into bee decline as I am an environmentalist at heart and a gardener by passion.

    None of the studies I’ve read conclusively pinpoints the drivers behind pollinator decline. They all struggle with the same methodology where a single stimulus / cause can’t be isolated and studied. They ultimately conclude a range of factors contribute. The experimental plan is not correctly defined for a multi variable issue, nor is multivariate statistical analysis used to define the relevance of any given variable.

    Anecdotally that’s all nonsense. I live in an area with a lot of commercial agriculture. Arizona is still a major multibillion dollar industry. Although urban sprawl and water shortage is shifting that.

    My neighbors and I talked about the reducing wildlife and bees. We all stopped using pesticides and herbicides outdoors. Within 6 months the bees had come back, as well as a complete food chain, from insect up through lizards and birds.

    While I agree there is an insane amount of lobbying for allowable agricultural practices and cultural pressure for a “picture perfect yard”, one very important thing each person can do is stop poisoning the ground. These resilient systems can bounce back.

    That’s a “we” action to take, not a “they” action to lament.

  • Midnight01Midnight01

    lol. This is all scam, these aren’t “dire wolves”. They are just wolves. Funding scam or publicity stunt bc people like them form Game of Thrones. Save current species, what’s already gone is gone.

  • Darkeyed_maleDarkeyed_male
    edited April 2025

    So it would seem, that with the right set of circumstances, with the right group of people, we could use a couple norwall genes, some condor and some white pony DNA (a nice clean laboratory and some nurturing) for Project Pegasus!

    That may be the animal that brings us all together.

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    @Dance_Culture To be frank, there’s already plenty of horse apples dropping from on high without ACTUAL equines (winged and gorgeous or not) flying around…

  • Darkeyed_maleDarkeyed_male
    edited April 2025

    @CharlesGrove

    Evolution of thought will have its own set of creative boundaries. The challenge is however, in joining together in our creative processes, who will decide where the imagination takes us?

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    Well, the vast majority of our inventions are used to kill, destroy, or harvest, so…

    Kind of what happens when a prey species becomes a scavenger species, becomes a hunter gatherer species…

  • [Deleted User]easylike (deleted user)

    @Midnight01: I can buy that lol

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    Nice, we have an authority on dire wolves here. Must have spent their entire life studying them to have such certainty.

  • CelestialTouchCelestialTouch
    edited April 2025

    There's a bunch of ice-age animals they are trying to bring back like the Woolly Rhino. As the permafrost melts they find very well preserved specimens like from Siberia. I posted this pup (18,000 years old) because the teeth are very unique. They find a lot of Woolly Mammoths also...
    (Source - Live Science)

  • Darkeyed_maleDarkeyed_male
    edited April 2025

    We don't seem to have a track record that would align past behavior with conservation.

    Are we now presented with the burden of creation impunity while the world watches?

    These new beasts are given a place to roam free in our minds, but in our day to day, these animals will probably end up caged.

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    Free in our minds but actually caged is as good a description of humans as I have read.

  • PixiePassionsPixiePassions

    My boyfriend was showing me last night. I told Him I want a Dodo bird. 😁

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