Spring Break
Extinction A Thing Of The Past
Kareem Mohni
Issue date: 11/9/05 Section: Commentary
Extinction may not mean forever. The Associated Foreign Press, reported on Oct. 12 that Australian scientists have resumed working on "Jurassic Park" style cloning of the extinct Tasmanian tiger after abandoning the project earlier this year.
The project was originally discontinued because researchers were having a difficult time isolating quality DNA from museum collections. Researchers have resumed the project with a renewed motivation to find high quality DNA. DNA will come from the bones and teeth as well as from preserved animals in the collections of the Australian Museum.
I'm sure you're asking yourself right now, "What is the Tasmanian tiger?" The Tasmanian tiger was a dog-sized carnivorous marsupial more closely related to the kangaroo than any tiger. The last known Tasmanian tiger died in the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania in September 1936. The species was officially declared extinct in 1986.
Before judging the ethics of this cloning it is necessary to look at why the tiger went extinct. The Tasmanian tiger, like so many other animals that have gone extinct in the last few hundred years, was wiped out by man. The tiger's days were numbered after the arrival of Europeans as it became a game animal. In addition, the species interfered with livestock production. The Tasmanian government placed a bounty of £1 on the head of the tiger in 1888 and 20 years later they had paid out over 2,000 bounties. The irony here is startling because the Tasmanian government has now placed a reward on the head of live tigers. The government and research groups are actively investigated purported sightings of the tiger in hopes of finding a live animal.
Australia and Tasmania have arguably the worst extinction record for species in recent history. An effort to reverse this trend and for the pursuit of science are the only two reasons I see in support of cloning the Tasmanian tiger. Skeptics of this cloning claim that scientists are playing God. Project leader, Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales and former Director of the Australian Museum in Sydney Professor Mike Archer responded to these claims by saying that people "played God" when they called for this species extinction. In fact, he claims that "to actually reverse extinction would be the biological equivalent of the first walk on the moon."
The project was originally discontinued because researchers were having a difficult time isolating quality DNA from museum collections. Researchers have resumed the project with a renewed motivation to find high quality DNA. DNA will come from the bones and teeth as well as from preserved animals in the collections of the Australian Museum.
I'm sure you're asking yourself right now, "What is the Tasmanian tiger?" The Tasmanian tiger was a dog-sized carnivorous marsupial more closely related to the kangaroo than any tiger. The last known Tasmanian tiger died in the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania in September 1936. The species was officially declared extinct in 1986.
Before judging the ethics of this cloning it is necessary to look at why the tiger went extinct. The Tasmanian tiger, like so many other animals that have gone extinct in the last few hundred years, was wiped out by man. The tiger's days were numbered after the arrival of Europeans as it became a game animal. In addition, the species interfered with livestock production. The Tasmanian government placed a bounty of £1 on the head of the tiger in 1888 and 20 years later they had paid out over 2,000 bounties. The irony here is startling because the Tasmanian government has now placed a reward on the head of live tigers. The government and research groups are actively investigated purported sightings of the tiger in hopes of finding a live animal.
Australia and Tasmania have arguably the worst extinction record for species in recent history. An effort to reverse this trend and for the pursuit of science are the only two reasons I see in support of cloning the Tasmanian tiger. Skeptics of this cloning claim that scientists are playing God. Project leader, Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales and former Director of the Australian Museum in Sydney Professor Mike Archer responded to these claims by saying that people "played God" when they called for this species extinction. In fact, he claims that "to actually reverse extinction would be the biological equivalent of the first walk on the moon."