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Extinct Ibex Resurrected By Cloning

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the someone-call-ripley dept.

The Telegraph is reporting that for the first time an extinct animal has been brought back via cloning. The Pyrenean ibex, a type of mountain goat, was declared officially extinct in 2000, but thanks to preserved skin samples scientists were able to insert that DNA into eggs from domestic goats to clone a female Pyrenean ibex. While the goat didn't survive long due to lung defects this gives scientists hopes that it will be possible to resurrect extinct species from frozen tissue. "Using techniques similar to those used to clone Dolly the sheep, known as nuclear transfer, the researchers were able to transplant DNA from the tissue into eggs taken from domestic goats to create 439 embryos, of which 57 were implanted into surrogate females. Just seven of the embryos resulted in pregnancies and only one of the goats finally gave birth to a female bucardo, which died seven minutes later due to breathing difficulties, perhaps due to flaws in the DNA used to create the clone."

6 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. No Problem... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    We can just patch the damaged or missing segments with frog DNA...

    1. Re:No Problem... by bearflash · · Score: 5, Funny

      And since they're all females, there's no way they can reproduce! I'm 100% certain that the Ibex will never escape this remote Costa Rican island

  2. Corrected title... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pyrenean Ibex extinct... again.

  3. A new first by Haxzaw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, this Ibex became the first species to become extinct twice?

    1. Re:A new first by clone53421 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And the first clone to be the only one of its kind. ’Tis a grand day for clones!

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  4. Not necessarily by HangingChad · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...which died a seven minutes later due to breathing difficulties, perhaps due to flaws in the DNA used to create the clone.

    I have a goat herd and trust me when I say there doesn't have to be any flaws in the DNA to lose a baby. I've seen them still born, born too frail to stand up and get colostrum from mom, seen them live for a couple days and then die for no apparent reason. There's a reason goats have babies two and sometimes three at a time. The loss rate can be high, even under ideal conditions. The breed difference could account for it. Maybe the original breed had a slightly longer gestation period than modern goats.

    Back in the day I used to help a vet implant zebra embryos in horses. The take rate was a bit higher than that experiment, but we had more embryos to work with. 10% was a pretty good rate for implants and there's a lot of data on horses.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage