George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard University, is leading a project to bring the woolly mammoth back to life. Church is hopeful that they will be able to modify mammoth genes into Asian elephants in the next decade or so, thanks to a recent funding boost from the startup Colossal.
Genetic engineering is not the only field involved in the de-extinction field. Some groups are restoring ancient traits from extinct species by breeding individuals that still carry the genes for them. The Quagga Project in South Africa is selecting for zebras that still have their genes from the quagga, which is why the Tauros Program wants to back-breed modern cattle to make them more like their pre-domesticated ancestors.
Even if these efforts succeed, they can only create a kind of hybrid rather than a resurrected species.
A clone of an extinct species can be created from a living or preserved cell. The cells from woolly mammoths, dodos, the Tasmanian tiger, and other extinct species are not usable by scientists. The bucardo, a species of wild goat, was brought back in 2003 using a modern goat as a surrogate parent and egg donor. The baby bucardo, the only extinct species to ever be cloned, died seven minutes after being born.
Even if cloning is more successful, it could lead to proxies that differ in unknown and unpredictable ways from the extinct form. They may not be able to recreate the exact learning environment in which the original species was reared, which could cause the behavior of the de-extinct species to deviate from that of the original.
Despite these differences, Novak said, a clone is an authentic, or de- extinct, organisms.
The problems in the field don't deter researchers. A functional equivalent of a lost species may be good enough for them. The goal of the woolly mammoth project is to help the Asian elephants adapt to the cold climates of the north.
Gilbert said to make sure people don't think they're going to get a mammoth. They will get an elephant that can live in the cold.
There is a large area of tundra in Russia where scientists are trying to restore a grassland environment that was once home to large herds of mammoths. By trampling the soil and allowing cold air to come in, the mammoth hybrid could slow the melting of permafrost and the release of greenhouse gases that are warming the globe. The team hopes to save the elephant species by placing them in a large open area free from human conflict.
Novak is trying to resurrect the extinct passenger pigeon and the heath hen as genetically engineered hybrid species in the hope that they will help to restore their ailing ecosystems and motivate restoration efforts. The northern white rhino is functionally extinct because there are only two females left in the world. Stem cells that could differentiate into northern white rhino sperm and eggs are being developed by scientists at the zoo.
I think we will get a mammoth, but I don't think we will get it in this case.
Novak said that if resurrected species are introduced into the wild, some of their successes may go even further.
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