This week, the US Startup Colossal Biosciences announced to have recreated three-terrible wolves, prehistoric animals that have been extinct for 12,000 years . The company said reversed the extinction of the species Through genetic manipulation, but some scientists disagree with this statement.
The DNA of the outer wolves was extracted from a 13,000-year tooth and a skull of 72,000 years ago belonging to the species and preserved in a piche site. After examining the genome of these extinct animals, the colossal modified the gray wolves genes (the closest living relative of the terrible wolves) to resemble this ancient DNA.
Only 20 editions in 14 genes of the gray wolf were needed to recreate the DNA of the terrible, and these few changes gave the puppies – Romulus, Remo and Khaleesi – a larger size, stronger shoulders, wider head, larger teeth and jaws, more muscular legs and the characteristic howls of their ancestors.
The DNA which, in fact, belonged to the prehistory wolves was not inserted into the gray wolf genome, it was used as a model to be replicated.
Scientists disagree what species have returned from extinction
However, while colossal biosciences has used the term “des-exposing” to refer to the process and birth of the three white hair, some scientists disagree that we are witnessing the “rebirth” of a species.
The paleoecologist at the University of Otago, Nic Rawlen, spoke about the announcement on his social networks: “This is not a terrible wolf. It is a gray wolf with characteristics of terrible wolf, a ‘hybrid’.”
In an interview with the BBC, he explained his statement better and said that DNA extracted from fossilized remains is very damaged to be reliable in terms of serving as a model.
“Ancient DNA is as if you put fresh DNA in a 500 -degree oven at night,” he told BBC. “It comes out fragmented-like shards and dust. You can rebuild it, but it’s not good enough to do something with it.”
“What the colossal has produced is a gray wolf, but it has some characteristics of triable wolf, like a larger and white skull,” he added.
Paleoecologist Jacquielyn Gill of the University of Maine also argued that it is not possible to say that the species returned from extinction in an interview with Scientific American.
“This is a genetically modified gray wolf,” she told Scientific American. “I have over 14 Neanderthal genes in me, and we wouldn’t call me Neanderthal.”
Gill also pointed out that newly created puppies will not even have the same behavior that their species had been thousands of years: “Some of these things have been genetically coded, some of them are cultural.”
Corey Bradshaw, Professor of Global Ecology at Australia Flinders University, also echoes this skepticism.
“Yes, they have genetically slightly modified wolves. And that’s probably the best you’ll get. And these small modifications seem to have been derived from material recovered from terrible wolves. That makes him a terrible wolf? No. This makes him a slightly modified gray wolf?
“When you affirm all these great things and do not provide the associated evidence, especially in something as controversial as that, this is a huge sign of alert. This suggests that, at best, they have exaggerated. At worst, they are lied blatantly,” he added.
The scientific director of Colossal Biosciences, biologist Beth Shapiro, argued that the animals produced by the company represent the rebirth of the species, as their genome has been changed to this.
“We are using a concept of morphological species,” Shapiro justified, in an interview with Scientific American magazine. “We want to create functional versions of extinct species. We don’t have to have something that is 100% genetically identical.”
What to do with the ketible wolves now?
In defending his point to Scientific American magazine, paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill said that even if it was possible to recreate animals with a 100% identical DNA to the wolf-to-terrible, the question remains, “What will we do with them?”
Romulus, Remo and Khalessi will live in a Natural Reserve in the north of the United States, where they will be studied throughout their lives.
“I think they are the luckiest animals of all time,” said Shapiro, from Colossal Biosciences, in an interview with Time magazine. “They will live their entire lives in this protected ecological reserve, where they have all kinds of space. These animals have been raised by hand. They are not able to live in nature, and we want to study them for their lives and understand how these editions may have modified things that we cannot predict.”
However, this also means that the three animals will live limited lives to the reserve lines, and may form an pack of a maximum of three members.
In defending his point, paleoecologist Nic Rawlen added that we cannot trivialize the effects of extinction in the news: “Extinction is still forever. If we do not have extinction, how will we learn from our mistakes? Is we can destroy the environment and that animals can be extinguished, but can we bring them back?” He asked the BBC.
This content was originally published in scientists to disagree that-terrible wolves returned from the extinction on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
