Advances in genomics have created the possibility of bringing back extinct species from the past by making use of recovered DNA from preserved specimens. Companies attempting to “de-extinct” iconic species have received hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists.
These companies are trying to bring back iconic species that include ivory-billed woodpeckers, Tasmanian tigers, dodos, passenger pigeons, and woolly mammoths.
Efforts to recreate extinct species are controversial. The arguments in favor include the positive effects on ecosystems when keystone species are restored, and the excitement generated about conservation in general. The opposing view is that concentrating all this effort on these restorations diverts attention and funding from more urgent conservation work.
A more nuanced viewpoint that has emerged is that actually de-extincting species is not possible. The genome of these vanished species cannot be reconstructed perfectly. Specimens are not cryopreserved from when the animal died. What can be retrieved is at best significant fragments of the genome. These are combined with DNA from related contemporary animals to produce the new species.
As a result, what emerges are proxies. They are animals that are similar to extinct animals – in some cases convincingly so – but they are not the same species that existed in the past. They may be able to fill the same ecological niches and they may have similar behavior. But they are not de-extincted specimens of the past species. Is it worth doing? Quite possibly but it’s not actually bringing back what is gone.
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Despite Biotech Efforts to Revive Species, Extinction Is Still Forever
Photo courtesy of Grazelands Rewilding.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio
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