08 January,2009 10:24 AM IST | | Agencies
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A scene from Jurassic Park III - maybe not too far from the truth |
The idea of resurrecting extinct animals moved a step closer to reality last year when scientists announced that they had decoded almost all of the genome of the woolly mammoth, from 60,000-year-old remains found frozen in Siberia.
Now New Scientist magazine has named the 10 other beasts most likely to rise again, including the Irish elk deer whose antlers measured 12 feet across, the dodo and Neanderthal man.
Animals that died out thousands of years ago could be recreated using genetic information retrieved from well-preserved specimens recovered from permafrost, dark caves or dry desserts.
There is no chance of bringing back the dinosaurs because genetic information is unlikely to survive more than a million years in any environment.
But scientists have just announced they had "resurrected" a gene from the Tasmanian tiger by implanting it in a mouse and examined its function - the first time such a feat had been achieved.
The genomes of several extinct species besides the mammoth are already being sequenced.
To revive a long-dead species scientists would have to recover enough DNA from a well-preserved specimen and find a suitable surrogate species similar to that of the extinct animal in which to grow the new baby from an embryo.
"It's hard to say that something will never ever be possible,"said Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who is sequencing the Neanderthal genome.
"But it would require technologies so far removed from what we currently have that I cannot imagine how it would be done."
Assuming we will develop the necessary advanced technology, New Scientist has selected 10 extinct creatures that might one day be resurrected.
The magazine said: "Our choice is based not just on feasibility, but also on each animal's 'megafaunal charisma' just how exciting the prospect of resurrecting these animals is.
"Of course, bringing extinct creatures back to life raises a whole host of practical problems, such as where they will live, but let's not spoil the fun..."
1. Neanderthal: Extinct: 25,000 years ago.
A draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome should be published sometime this year by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Humans would make the ideal surrogates.
2. Sabre-toothed tiger: Extinct: 10,000 years ago
There are some spectacularly preserved sabre-toothed specimens from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, and lions are close enough to be surrogates.
3. Short-faced bear: Extinct: 11,000 years ago
This towering beast would dwarf the world's largest living land carnivore, the polar bear, stanidng a third taller when standing upright, and it weighed up to a tonne. Recovering its DNA should be possible as there are specimens encased in permafrost.
