Cloning Dinosaurs

[ZombiezuRFER]

I realize the prblems cloning dinosaurs presents because of the way that the DNA is fragmented.  I suggest that you take many samples until you get a dinosaurs complete DNA, then inject that into a turkey embryo.  Transplant the embryo into an artificial egg, and it should hatch with proper incubation tactics.  I suggest starting with a small dino, like a compsognathus.  it could be fed lizards and small sterilized mammals.

Please elaborate

[bommel]

I'm no friend of genetic engineering, not because of religious believes but because we don't know anything about the long term effects... preventing zombie apocalypse, you know

[Payä Tìrol]

DNA tends to degrade over time... Even if you kept it in a fridge, it probably wouldn't last the couple hundred million years since those genomes were last available. Over that same time in the gut of a mosquito that got trapped by amber where there are all sorts of nucleases floating around? You would be lucky to recover intact bases

[Kerame Pxel Nume]

DNA tends to degrade over time... Even if you kept it in a fridge, it probably wouldn't last the couple hundred million years since those genomes were last available. Over that same time in the gut of a mosquito that got trapped by amber where there are all sorts of nucleases floating around? You would be lucky to recover intact bases

And even if you'd recover the  genome, you'd face the problems of epigenetics (something completely unknown at the time Jurassic Park was written) Epigenetics is the reason, why some clones do not look like the indiviual the sample was taken from.

[Payä Tìrol]

Yeah, we're only discovering now that quite a bit of information is not actually encoded in the genome base pairs themselves, but rather in covalent side additions to the backbone. This kind of modification plays a huge role in silencing or activating important gene clusters, and it's the reason why cloned animals like Dolly started developing diseases common to old age, despite being young.

[ZombiezuRFER]

feeling a simmer...

This proposal is only for cloning, its not for a completely foolproof dino clone.

[Lolet]

Wouldn't the population of cloned creatures be inbred too?

[Payä Tìrol]

This proposal is only for cloning, its not for a completely foolproof dino clone.

Oh don't mind me, I just like poking holes in science-y things

Ma Lolet,
There's actually a specific reason why inbreeding is considered bad for the offspring. Basically, the majority of people are carriers for recessive diseases of some sort or another, but these diseases generally don't present symptoms unless someone inherits both copies as defective from their parents. Since the incidence in the population of any particular defective gene is low, the likelihood that two people that are carriers for the same disease have children is also very, very low.
This all changes if someone has children with, say, their cousin. The likelihood that both of them inherited the same defective gene from an ancestor is relatively high, so the incidence of particular genetic diseases among their children is also much higher than the general population. Over time (like, say, hundreds of years of intermarried European monarchs), these accumulate, and you end up with a population with a very high incidence of genetic disorders like hemophilia, etc.

[Lolet]

That's what I was thinking when I read about cloning a mammoth a few month ago. They have only a few different bodies to use, so I don't think a sustainable population is viable.

Though I know very little about science, just finished 9th grade bio.

[Payä Tìrol]

Yeah, generally not. Populations basically become inviable below a certain point, depending on how diverse the population already is, although it's not really something you can calculate.

If you're trying to reconstitute a species from a single mated pair... Good luck

[Lolet]

Guess there's no hope for the Washington Pygmy rabbit then.  Of course, there's only like two females left anyways.

[Payä Tìrol]

Yeah, there are a number of critically endangered species that are thought to have fallen below this threshold already, but it's far more common for the species to go extinct from the environmental pressure that caused to them to become endangered in the first place (aka, people) than to go extinct from genetic problems.

[bommel]

Not to forget diseseases (virus etc.)...
Though I'm not religious I don't think we should do cloning or much genetic engineering. We now nothing about the long term effects and I don't want to face a zombie apocalypse :/

[kewnya txamew'itan]

If you're trying to reconstitute a species from a single mated pair... Good luck

Whilst this is generally the case I believe that there's a species of moth or bird or some other ioang a tswayon that has recovered to a workable population from only one or two mated pairs. I think it was in new scientist a year or two ago; I can't remember much more about it though and it certainly would be the exception not the norm.

[ZombiezuRFER]

Not to forget diseseases (virus etc.)...
Though I'm not religious I don't think we should do cloning or much genetic engineering. We now nothing about the long term effects and I don't want to face a zombie apocalypse :/

actually, we do it quite often and its long term implications are forseen.  anitfreeze strawberries, pest-proof corn, etc.  Thats all that happens when you have a single gene, it does its one purpose.  It does not do anything else than that.

[bommel]

actually, we do it quite often and its long term implications are forseen.  anitfreeze strawberries, pest-proof corn, etc.  Thats all that happens when you have a single gene, it does its one purpose.  It does not do anything else than that.

but I don't think it's that good. That's somehow like riding a nuclear bomb :/

[ZombiezuRFER]

and how does that equate? how is genetic modification like riding a nuke?  Genetic modification requires competence to even have a chance at getting the gene spliced.  But anyways, this is about the cloning of the dinosaurs.

[bommel]

and how does that equate? how is genetic modification like riding a nuke?  Genetic modification requires competence to even have a chance at getting the gene spliced.  But anyways, this is about the cloning of the dinosaurs.

Ask BP. They are drilling for oil since decades and they caused now one of the biggest environmental catastrophies ever... but right, talking 'bout dinos

Somehow, I have now Jurassic Park in mind - they lost control too ^^

[Lolet]

Not to mention we really don't know a lot about dino behavior. That's very important f you want to keep animals captive the proper way.

[bommel]

Not to mention we really don't know a lot about dino behavior. That's very important f you want to keep animals captive the proper way.

Yes. And fighting against them when they turn bad won't be cool either