The problem with this type of approach (apart from the lack of genetic variability etc.) is the choice of species used the scientists involved-the huia and the moa (they want to clone a moa based on an emu template--perhaps they'll get an e-moa??) are all very nice, but they sit quite far up the food chain, while many of the species that they fed on, or cleaned up after them have been extinct for just as long. This 'science' where the choice of subject is decided by its future marketibility is daft, as even if they manage to overcome the problem of sparse genetic information they have to begin with, the birds may well endup extinct again very quickly, especially as their habitat has been severly depleted-something which is ont stoping as the government has decided that to ensure New Zealand's clean-green image continues they sould log an extensive area of ancient native beech forest on the outskirt of our largest national park...
Personally I think the people involved in dreaming up these ideas should redirect their funds into something a bit more constructive, such as conserving the rapidly diminishing number of native species still surviving-and not just the cut/cuddly/scary looking ones, but also the creepy crawly slimy ones, as they matter just as much...
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The problem with this type of approach (apart from the lack of genetic variability etc.) is the choice of species used the scientists involved-the huia and the moa (they want to clone a moa based on an emu template--perhaps they'll get an e-moa??) are all very nice, but they sit quite far up the food chain, while many of the species that they fed on, or cleaned up after them have been extinct for just as long. This 'science' where the choice of subject is decided by its future marketibility is daft, as even if they manage to overcome the problem of sparse genetic information they have to begin with, the birds may well endup extinct again very quickly, especially as their habitat has been severly depleted-something which is ont stoping as the government has decided that to ensure New Zealand's clean-green image continues they sould log an extensive area of ancient native beech forest on the outskirt of our largest national park...
Personally I think the people involved in dreaming up these ideas should redirect their funds into something a bit more constructive, such as conserving the rapidly diminishing number of native species still surviving-and not just the cut/cuddly/scary looking ones, but also the creepy crawly slimy ones, as they matter just as much...
just my NZ$0.04 (=US$0.02)