Recent advances in molecular techniques have allowed scientists to successfully extract proteins and DNA fragments from...

Recent advances in molecular techniques have allowed scientists to successfully extract proteins and DNA fragments from extinct animals found in museum collections or the recent fossil record. In the near future, it may be possible to clone previously extinct organisms such as mammoths. What are your opinions on cloning extinct species?

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Expert Solution

Cloning an entire extinct animal may be possible but not in the near future. The technology that is required to produce a complete organism from scratch has not been developed yet. For example, putting all the cell organelles and DNA together does not constitute a live cell.

However, if extinct animals are cloned by artificial methods, they may not become successful in the wild. They have to be maintained in zoos or national parks. It is important to remember that these organisms were negatively selected or they could not cope up with the selection pressures during their time span. Hence they become extinct. So, if we bring them back into the current ecosystem, they have to be maintained.

On the other hand, if a very old (in time scale) extinct organism is created back, it may disturb the current ecosystem balance. It may be practical to create organisms belonging to the near timescale that would not cause significant ecological disturbances.

For example, if we create a dinosaur, it may kill many carnivores soon and destroy the ecosystem balance. They may not be supported for long in the wild.

It is important to conserve the current biodiversity as all the living organisms have equal rights on earth.

gladiator answered 1 year ago

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