Apr 14, 2022
The way to “de-extintion” (Part 2)
The Quagga return
I know, it sound like to title of a bad movie, but we are talk of serious topic, for the moment, I invite that you not think about the de-extintion as learned the fiction, so for a moment I invite you not to think of de-extinction as fiction has taught it, but as something “possible”.
Before continuing, if you have not yet read the first part of this topic, I invite you to spend four minutes of your time doing so, as there are important details about DNA that I would like you to know.
What is extinction, and can a species really reappear?
“Extinction” is such a feared word, but at the same time so common, that it is not surprising when a species is mentioned as “endangered” or “extinct”. Sebastián Apesteguía and Roberto Ares mention in their book that, on average, every 20 minutes a species that we will probably never know becomes extinct. Calm down! Don’t panic yet, the data sounds alarming, but remember that just as animals become extinct, new ones also appear; unfortunately, it is not possible to calculate the average with which new species appear, therefore, there is no exact number to determine how critical the situation is.
Now, extinction can be considered as the end of one species or many. In the case of mass extinctions, a considerable percentage of the life that we found at that time disappears, the Devonian extinction being a disappearance of 70% of life on earth, while at the end of the Permian 95% of life disappears. It should be clarified that the quantitative data are approximate and vary (although very little) from the website from which they are extracted, for this blog, the data was retrieved from the website of the University of Costa Rica (The article is in the section of references).
Formula to revive an extinct species
I would be called crazy if I claimed that it is possible to revive an extinct species, especially given the limitations covered in part 1 of this topic; however, these limitations can be overcome, as the “resurrected” plant of 31,800 years ago did. The attempts to resurrect animals from extinction to continue and one of them is the “Lazarus Project”, which tries to resurrect extinct species, such as the frog is Rheobatrachus silus; a frog that had (already extinct) an exceptional reproduction that consisted of gastric incubation, where the eggs, laid by the female and fertilized by the male, were swallowed by the mother, where they ended up in her stomach, where the tadpoles developed until they come out of the mother’s mouth, turned into frogs; almost like the pouch of the kangaroo. It is not essential to understand this blog, but I recommend my YouTube video on mammals (In spanish, with subtitles).
Returning to the subject, although scientists have managed to clone some embryos that ended up dying.
Small explanatory fact (if you wish, skip this paragraph): on Wikipedia (dubious source) I found a fact that stated that:
“In early 2020, geneticists at the University of New Wales obtained fertile embryos of Rheobatrachus silus.”
However, despite the fact that I was looking for this information in countless other media, I did not find in any document, scientific article or current web page that could confirm its veracity, not even in the links of the article itself (in Wikipedia). Of course, the idea of geneticists cloning fertile embryos does not seem in the least absurd to me, especially considering that we live in the year 2022, but without a reliable source that affirms this information, the correct thing to do is remain skeptical about its veracity.
Let’s continue…
What does Equus quagga quagga have to do with all this?
Also called “Quagga”, the Quagga was a subspecies of Zebra whose fur had a reddish tone with black stripes on its face, neck, sides and mane; It can be seen in the image at the beginning of this blog. La Quagga became extinct in 1870, at a time when nature was thought to be inexhaustible, in the shadow of a lack of environmental awareness.
It is a species whose DNA has been extensively studied with the purpose of “reversing” the extinction of the animal through the Quagga project, started in 1987; however, unlike Rheobatrachus silus, it is not expected to clone the animal for the extinction of the Quagga, but rather the project is carried out through selective breeding.
Selective breeding
As already mentioned, the genetics of the Quagga was extensively studied, which allowed in the year 1980 to conclude that the Quagga was a subspecies of the Common Zebra, which could share the same genetic reserve with other subspecies of the Common Zebra; something like a family where siblings share genetics because they descend from the same father and mother. “The Quagga Project” was born to carry out a selective breeding program, from the common Zebra specimens most similar to the Quagga. The project has achieved a population of purebred animals practically identical to the Quagga.
Although it can be considered as a “successful de-extinction”, we found the limitation of not having the genome of the original Quagga to confirm the recreation of the genotype.
Imagine the following scenario: One day you obtain the power to revive individuals, so you decide to bring your great-great-grandfather back to life, but there is no photograph of him and neither does he have anyone he knows; How could you be sure that you revived your great-great-grandfather, beyond a mere hunch, if you don’t have any evidence to confirm your success?
A similar case occurs with the Quagga genotype, but at a less superficial level. Therefore, the resurrection of the Quagga would be a “partial extinction”.
The myth of the resurrection of the Mammoths…
I imagine that the reader was thinking during all these minutes about the Mammoths, because when we talk about reviving extinct species, for some reason the Mammoth is the favorite animal; however, all the news about the resurrection of the Mammoth is nothing more than repeated lies that, in reality, with what has been seen in this blog and its first part, can be denied in three simple points:
- Current technology is not advanced enough to revive such an ancient animal.
- Mamut’s DNA is highly contaminated.
- There are species with higher priority that do need to be “cloned”.
For more complete information about the Mammoth, I recommend this conference by Dr. Beth Shapiro, although only if you have free time, since the entire video lasts 86 minutes.
Conclusion
Although the de-extinction can be carried out and there is multiple evidence to support its veracity, it is impossible to deduce with certainty if the de-extinction was carried out successfully in a project, precisely because of the absence of the individuals of the original species, not to mention that it is a procedure that is under the limitations of the human being.
Reviving a species is too complicated and depends on many factors, not to mention the subsequent consequences, such as inbreeding or the impact on the habitat.
I hope this invites you to meditate on the importance of raising awareness about the extinction of species, and that it will be better to forget the myth of one day reviving all extinct species, after all, nature is still too complex to be recreated for the human.
References:
— Apesteguía, S., & Ares, R. (2010). Vida en evolución: la historia natural vista desde Sudamérica. Vázquez Mazzini Editores.
— Parker, S. (2016). Evolución Toda la Historia (1.a ed.). (Pag 558 and 559)
— Sfera, E. (2022, 4 enero). Proyecto Lázaro regresa a la vida una extraña especie de rana extinta en los años 80. Ecoosfera. Recuperado 11 de abril de 2022, de https://ecoosfera.com/medio-ambiente/proyecto-lazaro-regresa-a-la-vida-una-extrana-especie-de-rana-extinta-en-los-anos-80/
— TheQuaggaProject. (2021, 30 junio). The Project. The Quagga Project. Recuperado 12 de abril de 2022, de https://www.quaggaproject.org/the-project/
— Universidad de Costa Rica. (2018, 16 julio). La sexta extinción masiva de los organismos será provocada por el ser humano. Recuperado 11 de abril de 2022, de https://www.ucr.ac.cr/noticias/2018/07/16/la-sexta-extincion-masiva-de-los-organismos-sera-provocada-por-el-ser-humano.html
