Should we or should we not?

Admin · Mon Mar 23, 2015 10:43 pm

Combine Woolly Mammoth DNA into elephants...... a scientist claims to have done it.

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/03/23/s ... =webmail10

Life At Zen · Mon Mar 23, 2015 11:10 pm

I'm a believer that species die out for a reason. Especially that long ago, when mankind wasn't invading and killing the way we are now. But then there's the Woolly-obsessed little girl in me that says OMGawd!

Same goes for dinosaurs. Which we have an entire movie series about how that's really a bad idea.

peeptoad · Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:16 am

I guess part of the moral question depends on what the end goal is... if it's just to have Jurassic Park style elephants roaming around, then no.

serenassong · Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:47 am

Bit of a slippery slope. While it would be exciting to see a living, breathing animal from the past, do agree there could be a valid reason as to why they went extinct. Not sure if we should be playing God.

ElPrado2 · Tue Mar 24, 2015 9:35 am

Oh, goodie.
Another source of ivory for the Chinese.
Have they duplicated the wooly rhino, too? Can't let that huge rhino horn go to waste. Think of all the barren Chinese couples slavering over that.

And please, before anyone jumps on me... that last was a joke.

Tessablue · Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:14 pm

ElPrado2 wrote:Oh, goodie.
Another source of ivory for the Chinese.
Have they duplicated the wooly rhino, too? Can't let that huge rhino horn go to waste. Think of all the barren Chinese couples slavering over that. And please, before anyone jumps on me... that last was a joke.

Racist jokes are still racist, dude.

Anyways my answer to the questions posed is AW HECK YEAH!

BaroqueAgain1 · Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:29 pm

This would be a significant scientific achievement...and IMHO it is worth trying. It could have important implications for efforts to save today's species that are threatened with extinction. If they can show that this old DNA is viable, that might mean their techniques could be used to save modern elephants, rhinos, cheetahs, etc.
Maybe that stuffed Tasmanian Tiger (wiped out by humans relatively recently) still has some useable DNA in its tissue? I'd love to see that.

War Admiral · Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:16 pm

Uhm! Not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand I'd like to see a wooly mammoth walking around in a zoo or a game preserve but to use scientific means to re-create a species that has died just doesn't sound right. I guess I agree with peeptoad here.
If there is some scientific reason for doing this them I think its ok. If it just to have a Jurassic Park style game preserve with wooly mammoths walking around then I think it's a bad idea.

Senator L · Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:28 pm

Is there any way to know how it will taste?

Starine · Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:16 pm

Senator L wrote:Is there any way to know how it will taste?

Yes. We clone one and eat it. That is the plan.

Kay16 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:23 pm

Life At Zen wrote:I'm a believer that species die out for a reason. Especially that long ago, when mankind wasn't invading and killing the way we are now. But then there's the Woolly-obsessed little girl in me that says OMGawd!

Same goes for dinosaurs. Which we have an entire movie series about how that's really a bad idea.

I think it would be a fantastic idea. I would be first in line to see them in person.

Then again I'm crazy.

Life At Zen · Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:28 pm

Kay16 wrote:
Life At Zen wrote:I'm a believer that species die out for a reason. Especially that long ago, when mankind wasn't invading and killing the way we are now. But then there's the Woolly-obsessed little girl in me that says OMGawd!

Same goes for dinosaurs. Which we have an entire movie series about how that's really a bad idea.
I think it would be a fantastic idea. I would be first in line to see them in person.

Then again I'm crazy.

You don't think I'd be fighting for that first in line position? I'd flock to it like a pig to shit. But I still think it's a bad idea lol.

Oldowan · Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:42 pm

I want them to do it so I can get one, hire some people to figure out the best way to sneak up on it, stab it with Clovis points, and eat it.

Uh, for science.

ElPrado2 · Thu Mar 26, 2015 5:13 am

I don't think of that as racist.
Who's getting the rhino horns? They aren't coming here. There must be one hell of a market for them. What are they used for? Aphrodisiac. Just what China needs, more babies. How many white rhinos are left? How many black rhinos? How many in Sumatra...3?
And I have been within 200 miles of China. Probably a whole lot closer than you have. I am reacting to the thousands of people in a Chinese sponsored rally 3 stories below me that wanted to kill every non Asian in the Far East. That was before Viet Nam got even close to boiling over. I was on Okinawa in 1963.
It's a pet peeve.

Matt Converse · Sat Mar 28, 2015 5:57 am

serenassong wrote:Bit of a slippery slope. While it would be exciting to see a living, breathing animal from the past, do agree there could be a valid reason as to why they went extinct. Not sure if we should be playing God.

On the other hand, if you believe in God, then he created the scientist who claims to have done it, right?

Prairie Bayou · Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:24 pm

So people can hunt them back into extinction?

ElPrado2 · Mon Apr 06, 2015 3:10 pm

No, probably so that they can be kept in huge groups of 3 stuck in zoos or concrete fenced "preserves". I'm not exactly in complete favor. Hopefully in Canada or Siberia where they won't die of heat prostration.

Catalina · Mon Apr 06, 2015 3:26 pm

Prairie Bayou wrote:So people can hunt them back into extinction?

Now that I can believe. There's no doubt already some big game hunters pondering how to rearrange their trophy wall to accommodate a mammoth or such.

Prairie Bayou · Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:42 pm

Personally I would love a Dodo bird.

ElPrado2 · Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:56 pm

A flightless giant pigeon with a big nose. That would be cute. Breed enough of them and they would give turkeys a run for the money.