Quiroz1
Alicia Quiroz
Haner
Wri10
March 01, 2014
Jurassic Park Possible?
Imagine vast green lands filled with creatures that once were. Creatures that we had
only heard about in stories. Imagine those creatures that you once painted in your mind while
reading come alive right before your very own eyes. Imagine being able to see a tyranisaurous
rex feed right before your eyes, imagine seeing different colorful creatures fly in our skies, or
actually being able to see mammoths roam our white icy lands once again. Is it possible for the
species that once roamed the earth long ago to walk amongst us again? If so, how would these
life forms be revived? How would cloning change our enviroment
Dinosaurs and Mammoths alive?
Scientists could bring back extinct species through a form of cloning. Resurrecting
extinct life forms would require scientists, “to infer a sequence of an ancient protein using
phylogenetic methods, a DNA molecule coding for that protein is created, the extinct protein is
expressed in vitro or in cultured cells and its functions are examined using molecular
techniques.”( Thorton) Techniques used in this experiments are different forms cloning like
nuclear transfer. The steps in nuclear transfer include, “Removing the DNA from an oocyte
(unfertilized egg), and injecting the nucleus which contains the DNA to be cloned.”(Thorton)
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Clones Amongst Us?
Experiments involving nuclear transfer to bring back an extinct mammal have already
been performed. “On July 30, 2003, Spanish and French scientists reversed time and brought
back a wild goat known as a bucardo, or Pyrenean ibex from extinction.”(Zimmer) This goat
lived along the cliffs of the Pyrenees mountain range in between France and Spain and ate
leaves, stems, and endured the harsh winters. In 1999 Celia, the last Pyrenean ibex, died
because a tree fell over her. Celia’s cells were then preserved in labs in Zaragoza and Madrid.
The scientists then started to perform their experiment by, “injecting nuclei from those cells
into goat eggs emptied of their own DNA, then implanted the eggs in surrogate mothers. After
57 implantations, only seven animals had become pregnant. And of those seven pregnancies,
six ended in miscarriages. But one mother—a hybrid between a Spanish ibex and a goat—
carried a clone of Celia to term.”(Zimmer) When the mother was due the scientists performed a
c-section and delivered the 4.5-pound clone. The newborn clone was struggling to take in air
and her tongue was sticking out strangely out of her mouth. Ten minutes after being born
Celia’s clone died even though they tried to help her breathe. “A necropsy later revealed that
one of her lungs had grown a gigantic extra lobe as solid as a piece of liver.” (Zimmer)There was
nothing they could have done to keep her alive. Although this cloning experiment did not
survive it does not mean that all future cloning experiments were fails. Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul
National University in South Korea was the first one to successfully clone a healthy dog named
Snuppy.
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Controversy
Bringing back extinct life forms brings up questions and disagreements between people.
If a species were to be brought back into our world, where would we keep them? How would
this change our environment? Resurrecting extinct species would not be such a great idea. Why
should scientists try to bring them back on to our earth if the species was not strong enough to
survive in the first place. The conditions we live in now might not be fit enough for those life
forms. For example Lights suggests that, “Current rates of extinction are so high that species
are dying out at an estimated speed of between 1,000 and 10,000 times the natural rate, and
cloning for de-extinction may mean that scientists can bring back polar bears if we fail in our
efforts to save them from being wiped out, but bringing them back won't be much good to
anyone since the destruction of their natural habitat is leading to their extinction in the first
place. It may be that humans have to change their relationship with animals before we can act
upon bringing them back from the dead, lest we kill them all over again.”(Zion Lights) Although
resurrecting extinct species wouldn’t be such a good idea, all cloning is not bad. Cloning is used
on beef cattle to produce more food and people even get their loyal companion, the dog,
cloned.(vogel)
Conclusion
Resurrecting extinct life forms is a huge step in technology. Different animals have been
successfully cloned and have even been changed genetically. Though this type of experimenting
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is very amazing, it does not mean scientists should go ahead and experiment it on extinct
species. They should first ask themselves how this would benefit our environment or if it even
will.
Works Cited
"Nuclear Transfer." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
"Should Cloning Be Used to Bring Back Extinct Species?" Permaculture Magazine. N.p., n.d.
Web. 05 Mar. 2014
"The New Age of Exploration." Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar.
2014.
Thornton, Joseph W. "Resurrecting Ancient Genes: Experimental Analysis of Extinct Molecules."
Nature.com. Macmillian, May 2004. Web. Feb. 2014
Vogel, Gretchen. "First Dog Cloned." Http://news.sciencemag.org/2005/08/first-dog-cloned.
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 3 Aug. 2005. Web. Feb. 2014.