Scientists Clone Extinct Frog's DNA
- 11 years ago
Scientists clone an extinct frog's DNA.
Scientists have attempted to clone the extinct gastric brooding frog from Australia.
The frog, known for giving birth out of its mouth, is believed to have gone extinct in the year 1983, due to habitat loss and disease.
For their experiments, scientists used DNA obtained from frozen gastric brooding frog specimens inserted into donor eggs from a related species. They successfully created early stage embryos of the extinct species, which died after a few days before developing into tadpoles.
The lead researcher Professor Mike Archer said: "We're increasingly confident that the hurdles ahead are technological and not biological, and that we will succeed. Importantly, we've demonstrated already the great promise this technology has as a conservation tool when hundreds of the world's amphibian species are in catastrophic decline."
Some ethical and moral questions are raised by cloning, especially when it comes to species that are extinct.
The cloning of the gastric brooding frog was announced at a conference in Washington D.C. that focused on genetic cloning of extinct species.
The Lazarus Project, which is behind the frog cloning, now has plans to clone the Tasmanian tiger.
What do you think? Should scientists be cloning animals that are extinct?
Scientists have attempted to clone the extinct gastric brooding frog from Australia.
The frog, known for giving birth out of its mouth, is believed to have gone extinct in the year 1983, due to habitat loss and disease.
For their experiments, scientists used DNA obtained from frozen gastric brooding frog specimens inserted into donor eggs from a related species. They successfully created early stage embryos of the extinct species, which died after a few days before developing into tadpoles.
The lead researcher Professor Mike Archer said: "We're increasingly confident that the hurdles ahead are technological and not biological, and that we will succeed. Importantly, we've demonstrated already the great promise this technology has as a conservation tool when hundreds of the world's amphibian species are in catastrophic decline."
Some ethical and moral questions are raised by cloning, especially when it comes to species that are extinct.
The cloning of the gastric brooding frog was announced at a conference in Washington D.C. that focused on genetic cloning of extinct species.
The Lazarus Project, which is behind the frog cloning, now has plans to clone the Tasmanian tiger.
What do you think? Should scientists be cloning animals that are extinct?