De-Extinction, or why Jurassic Park will probably not happen.
Oh the thrills of Jurassic Park – a movie classic. That scene with the T-Rex still scares me! (It's embedded below.)
De-extinction is a possibility, but even if we could bring back species, would it be the actual animal? We have no idea how the animal behaved, how it interacted with the local ecosystem and microbacteria, in fact it's sort of an egg-but-no-chicken idea. Would a wolly mammoth behave and act like a woolly mammoth, or would it just look like one?
In Europe, they're successfully bringing back a lost species of wild cattle through a technique called backbreeding. The animal is the auroch, which was included as a mythical creature in the magical movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild.
It's been so successful, they've recently released this backbred, wild-ish cattle in to the mountains of Eastern Europe. Cool! After 500 years, these creatures are re-inhabiting the mountains.
I wonder what complications will come of this for the people living in and tourists visiting the mountains.
And then there's the mighty passenger pigeon. Check out the fascinating discussion of undoing extinction with passenger pigeons through backbreeding and crossbreeding of its closest relatives. Did you know that the ROM has the most specimens of this extinct bird? Here's a podcast from CBC that goes in-depth on how it might actually work. It's captivating to think about!
And here's the ROM's perspective on their drawers of passenger pigeons and what that means for scientists.
Curious to know more about de-extinction? Check out The Sixth Extinction on the Word Out Science List.
I love rewatching this movie clip and getting scared over and over.
Try, TRY to keep breathing. It's scary!!
I'd rather revive the passenger pigeon than a T-Rex…just sayin'.
Out of all the extinct creatures, which one would you bring back?
Rabbit hole of lists of known extinct creatures
…and can we get a count of how many screams happen in this clip?
7 thoughts on “De-Extinction, or why Jurassic Park will probably not happen.”
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Oh yeah, and the extinct creature that I would bring back would be the passenger pigeon.
Tasmanian Tiger! Or maybe a cute hopping rodent. I am fond of little furry things.
Also I actually found the scenes of the velociraptors hunting in teams even scarier. The intelligence… *shudder*
Tasmanian or saber-tooth tiger or Dodo bird for sure.
So true! They seemed too intelligent and way to capable to tear us to pieces. Please don’t come back… Thought I doubt if scientists have the technology, they wouldn’t be so rash as to bring them back as they are. They might shrink them or find a way to alter them so they won’t be so vicious. Of course, I do no think that this technology will be available any time soon. Safe for now!
I love those tigers! But wasn’t the dodo bird really unintelligent? Most species that become extinct is due to external forces such as natural disasters or environmental change. However, the dodo bird was such easy prey that they were hunted faster than they could breed. If they do come back, wouldn’t the same thing happen??? Unless they taste reallllyyyy good….Just for us…mhmmm.
Oh gosh that clip had me frozen eyes popped for the entire length! It just HAD to happen in the dark, I’m already scared of that! Too scared to rewatch and count the screams… Also, I can’t believe they managed to bring back the auroch, I wonder how they did it… I love the passenger pigeon! It’s beautiful.