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Ever since those toothy dinosaurs bedazzled us in Jurassic Park, the lingering question for many of us has been: “Is this possible in real life?”
It is okay for Richard Attenborough’s character to resurrect the beasts on the screen from the DNA in their blood found in the belly of a mosquito trapped in amber, but bringing back an extinct species from genomic sequences is not a real-life possibility — at least, not yet.
Leave aside ethical or ecological considerations. The theoretical possibility is fraught with challenges. DNA degrades over time and, for species extinct for millions of years, you typically get only fragmented DNA. Also, you must inject the DNA into the embryo of a closely related species — the ones that exist today are typically not close enough.
But even with a close relative, you may not be able to bring back exactly the gone species, but something closely resembling it.
Revive & Restore, an initiative by serial entrepreneur Ryan Phelan, targets the “genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species” by funding research into advanced biotechnologies aimed at wildlife conservation efforts.
With its partnership, scientists are attempting to bring back something akin to woolly mammoths, using today’s elephants.
Successful instances of de-extinction have been reported before. Recently, resurrection biologists at the California Academy of Sciences — supported by Revive & Restore — brought back the beautiful, cobalt-coloured Xerces butterfly — declared extinct in 1940 — using a close relative, the Silvery Blue.
Playing with a well-preserved 84-year-old specimen is fine, but going back millions of years in time and shovelling a dinosaur to the present is more the stuff of Spielbergs than scientists.
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