Imagine when we take a trip to a safari park, and we see the T. Rex of the Jurassic Age or the hairy mammoths of the Ice Age. Hm… Can we revive extinct animals? Is it possible?
Dino park may be just a fiction story, but maybe we can still made Pleistocene Park come back to life. Pleistocene Park is a cold tundra field that exists a few hundred thousand years ago. Some molecular biology researchers have found a way to resurrect extinct animal species. One of them, an animal species of the Ice Age, is the hairy mammoth.
What is The Method?
First, the researchers extracted DNA or genetic material that could be found from hairy mammoth mummies. The mammoth mummies can be found in the Siberian plains and Alaska.
DNA itself can be found in mammoth parts of the body, such as blood, hair, nails, or bone marrow. This process is not easy. Because, after exposure to weather, temperature, bacteria, and fungi for a long time, DNA will be damaged. Therefore, the more intact a specimen is, the more pieces of DNA are likely to be extracted. By the way, what exactly is DNA?
So DNA is a chain of protein molecules that represent genetic information of living things. DNA can be found in the nucleus, which is the core of a cell. The pieces of DNA can be organized to form a genome, a set of codes that can program a cell to develop into an adult individual. DNA determines whether a living thing has big or small ears, likes hot spots or cold spots, eats plants, or eats meat. In short, it is the DNA that plays a role in making a mammoth shaped and behaving like… a mammoth.
Now, these pieces of DNA that make mammoths unique are then used by researchers to modify the DNA of their closest surviving cousin, the Asian elephant. Subsequently, the combination of the genetic material of both species was injected into embryonic cells, which were then implanted in the mother womb of an Asian elephant. Through this process called synthesis, the descendants of Asian elephants that have the characteristics of hairy mammoths can be produced.
What if It Succeed?
If hairy mammoths and other extinct species are successfully resurrected, researchers believe many benefits can be provided to the world of science. For example, we could examine how mammoths can supposedly live in extreme environments. The results of this study can be applied to help the conservation efforts of animals that currently live in a similar environment.
This effort can also be a manifestation of our responsibility, as humans, to extinct species. Although, for example, we can technically blame the extinction of T. Rex and other dinosaurs on a meteor shower, many other species are extinct because of us, humans. Maybe we should pay for those mistakes by bringing them back to life. However, where will they live? Will we return them to the forests that are now barren, or the rivers that have been filled with garbage and pollution, just to end up extinct again?
So, before we think about, can we revive extinct animals? It might be a good idea to first try to keep the animals that are now alive, so they won’t have the same fate as their extinct relatives.
