An interesting nature website, MongaBay.com, recently described known animal extinctions that occurred in the last decade. Gone: a look at extinction over the past decade tells that the Yangtze River Dolphin, Chinese paddlefish, the Hawaiian crow, and the western black rhinoceros were casualties in the past ten years. Another, the Pyrenean ibex died, but briefly came back to life.
The Pyrenean ibex once roamed the regions of Spain and France in numerous numbers. Yet by 1900, Wiki tells their numbers were down to a lowly 100. Naturalists are unsure why the goat population became depleted. Perhaps as the natural habitat changed, they were unable to find sufficient food or shelter. The very last Pyrenean ibex died on January 6, 2000, when a tree fell upon the lone survivor of the species, a female named Celia.
Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning tells that scientists preserved skin samples of Celia in liquid nitrogen and in 2008 began preparing 439 embryos using somatic cell nucleus cloning. (The same as Dolly.) 57 of these were implanted into surrogate mothers, with only one female being born. Sadly, it died only 7 minutes after birth, due to breathing difficulties.
Perhaps researchers will try again, to bring Celia's DNA back to life. But perhaps the DNA is defective, and the explanation for the immature lungs. Failures will lead to future successes, and scientists are preparing a global tissue bank to collect and preserve nearly extinct tissue.
The Frozen Ark project is a consortium of natural museums and other organizations, with its secretariat located at the University of Nottingham. As their name implies, the idea is to preserve the DNA of today's species so that if a falling tree kills the last dodo, a DNA bank is available. Their website tells they currently have DNA or tissue preserved for over 1,000 species. Something I found interesting - Collection Protocols - Biopsy/Tissue samples. They prefer a dry liquid nitrogen carrier that can maintain the tissue samples at -150 degrees for approximately three weeks.
It is a great project and a great service to our planet.
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