Scientists Could Bring Mammoths Back To Life for $10 Million

It went extinct because 1. it was too hot, and 2. we ate a lot of them.
It was mostly the latter.

I'd personally like to see them brought back. Or maybe even just 2.
Let them cope on their own.

C,mon now! You mean you wouldnt want your  own cute cuddly baby mammoth to raise. Doing neat things like taking him for his first walk and teaching him to fetch the paper in the morning? You might want to subscribe to 8 or 10 newspaper though.

ok maybe not mammoths but

personally I'd like to try the old Gros Michel bananas that were supposed to be tastier than todays cavendish.

ok since they dont produce seeds might be harder,..but with agro bacteria i bet they can get the right genes to splice.

nearing:

We already know all about these animals

Well, no, actually, there's a lot you can't tell from examining the fossils (or even in the case of mammoths, their permafrosted remains). Their metabolism and enzymatic processes. Their reproductive cycle. Their social organization. Just because they're related to elephants does not mean that their biology and societies are the same.

What about their position in the ecology? I recall reading somewhere that elephant's weight and foot-shape has something to do with keeping down various weeds and pests because they flatten 'em. How did the sub-arctic ecology change after they were (apparently) hunted into extinction?

These are relatively recent extinctions, contemporaries to homo-sapiens, not at all like dinosaurs. One can look at it as playing Dr. Frankenstein; alternatively, might it be viewed as trying to repair the ecological networks that humanity is responsible for eliminating? What role did the carrier pigeon play? The dodo? etc. As much as the snail darter or spotted owl?

We could get this island see, somewhere off of Costa Rica and and fill it with dinosaurs and extinct species...

They probably had their own beneficial imprint just like the buffalo and the great Plains. They were also inhabitants of a much greater area than Alaska and the north. Consider how there has been talk at times of trying to restore some of the plains with its tall grasses and buffalo. Our farming industry is using up that fertile topsoil that the buffs created over many millenia at an alarming rate. You talk about running out of oil, well that rich soil only goes so far down and then it will be gone too with overuse.

mmmmm, mammoth steak

geez, and I thought Kobe beef was expensive.

(cue music - six million dollar man theme) wooly mamoth running across the plain in slow motion

"We can make him better, faster, stronger.....with onions and bar-b-que sauce..."

better, faster, stonger and tastier

I personally volunteer to raise any Neanderthal child created by anyone anywhere. I'll devote 20 years, all love, affection, invention, and anything else a Neanderthal child might need that I can possibly provide.

I mean ... can you imagine - a real non-human intelligence sharing the planet with us again?

Sure it's ethically tough to deal with creating a baby with extinct genes but really ... what is more unethical? Our having driven our Neanderthal cousins extinct? Or our refusing to revive them again when we have that ability?

Let me put it another way. Let's say someone, somewhere, creates a race of Neanderthals. And it turns out they didn't go extinct because of us. It was just bad luck. They turn out brighter, stronger, wiser, longer-lived and generally better. Meanwhile we hit peak-everything and die off. After a couple hundred years the Neanderthals figure out how they could possibly bring us back through their own genetic sciences.

Do you think they should?

"I never saw a miracle of science that didn't turn from a blessing to a curse."  - Sting.

So nature is a commodity where living creatures, animals and humans can be resurrected ... for a price.  Things are no longer extinct because their time is up but because no one could pay the fee.  This is so contrary to life.  Nature no longer selects, the dollar does.

Sting has indeed given up the use of electricity, petrochemicals, medicine and sanitation and now lives with his lovely wife and children in a cave.

His conscience is troubled, however, by his continued affliction with the curses of the lever, the wheel, and fire.

I was going to add something, but I,m feel ing a little hungry  at the moment.

@Nearing,

I will no more take responsibility for something that happened hundreds of thousands of years ago than I will for what what my father does today.

Ah ... so then you're saying refusing to revive them is more unethical. We agree ;-)

I will, however, continue to strive to make the present (and future, by extension) a better place for those that have evolved to this point.

I'm a little confused by this. If Neanderthal DNA survived to be reconstituted by the natural process of human intelligence, then that means they evolved to this point - no?

Or otherwise ... since we have the power to drive all other creatures to extinction, does that mean you will not strive to make the present and future a better place for them?

do they taste like chicken?

I admit it im onboard with this.... lets push the technology.

Just because we can do something, does not mean that we should.

Oh, I agree. Also does not mean we should not. My questions are about the distinctions we use to decide this.

I'm old enough to remember the media circus surrounding Dr Barnard's very first heart transplant. Church leaders came out against it - the man's soul will be in danger, science gone mad, etc.

Seems silly today.

I'm old enough to remember the media circus surrounding the first in vitro fertilization of human eggs. Church leaders came out against it - the child's soul will be in danger, science gone mad, etc.

Also seems silly today.

So ... why is it okay for a couple to consensually decide to raise, say, a Downs child, or a Spina Bifida child, knowing all the challenges in front of them, and all the odds stacked against them, but it's not okay for a couple to consensually decide to raise a Neanderthal?

Not saying you're silly - just want to understand your reasoning.