WaspInWales wrote:Bring them back, increase their numbers to millions by cloning the fuckers. Then slaughter them all for good quality winter clothing and warm duvets at premium prices.
#Capitalism.
You'll never get premium prices if you clone millions of them.
Giant Turtles and Aurocs would be the way to go for the meat industry.
The former may take forever to mature; but they can do it off by themselves out in the sea; and just collect them when they come to land for breeding.
Aurocs would just replace cow.
The attraction of Mammoths isn't going to be meat or clothing - it's going to be big-game hunters. The likes of Trump would pay a fortune to breed and then shoot a mammoth; but you'd need to keep mubers low, or everyone would be at it; and profit margins diminish.
Better bet for this market would be sabre-toothed cats - could put them in alongside the mamoths, charging millions per shooting trip.
Which Tyler wrote:Giant Turtles and Aurocs would be the way to go for the meat industry.
The former may take forever to mature; but they can do it off by themselves out in the sea; and just collect them when they come to land for breeding.
Aurocs would just replace cow.
The attraction of Mammoths isn't going to be meat or clothing - it's going to be big-game hunters. The likes of Trump would pay a fortune to breed and then shoot a mammoth; but you'd need to keep mubers low, or everyone would be at it; and profit margins diminish.
Better bet for this market would be sabre-toothed cats - could put them in alongside the mamoths, charging millions per shooting trip.
It would be pretty easy to clone the moa, I should think. Related to the Kiwi, plenty of remains dug up since they were only driven into extinction several hundred years ago. Enough kai for the whole hangi on those bones! The eggs would make a fairly decent omelette, too
But what would be really cool is if they were able to bring back the quetzalcoatlus. Size of a pony with a giraffe length neck and 11 metre wing span, we could ride those things around and dispense with planes and automobiles (Manure catchers obligatory, of course)!
If they're good enough to play at World Cups, why not in between?
What should be considered is using modern molecular biology technology to reduce genetic bottlenecks in at risk species. Gene editing of fixed traits in small isolated populations that threaten reproductive viability. That would be the shit.
rowan wrote:It would be pretty easy to clone the moa, I should think. Related to the Kiwi, plenty of remains dug up since they were only driven into extinction several hundred years ago. Enough kai for the whole hangi on those bones! The eggs would make a fairly decent omelette, too
But what would be really cool is if they were able to bring back the quetzalcoatlus. Size of a pony with a giraffe length neck and 11 metre wing span, we could ride those things around and dispense with planes and automobiles (Manure catchers obligatory, of course)!
I was thinking of moa as well - just felt I'd stop at the obvious 2
cashead wrote:Keep in mind that the last known population of woolly mammoths died out around the time that the Great Pyramid of Giza was being constructed. They're actually a lot more recent than most people probably realise.
Sure, which gives even more credence to the theory humans were responsible for their demise. So what are we going to do? Stick them in zoos in Siberia and Canada and gawk at them? Given we have several hundred species of life-forms going extinct every year at the present, scientists might be better served trying to save more of them than worry about reviving the ones we already got rid off, IMHO.
Because all the scienticians can only work on one thing at a time collectively.
I'm a god
How can you kill a god?
Shame on you, sweet Nerevar
cashead wrote:Keep in mind that the last known population of woolly mammoths died out around the time that the Great Pyramid of Giza was being constructed. They're actually a lot more recent than most people probably realise.
Sure, which gives even more credence to the theory humans were responsible for their demise. So what are we going to do? Stick them in zoos in Siberia and Canada and gawk at them? Given we have several hundred species of life-forms going extinct every year at the present, scientists might be better served trying to save more of them than worry about reviving the ones we already got rid off, IMHO.
Because all the scienticians can only work on one thing at a time collectively.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, your Haplessness. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways...
If they're good enough to play at World Cups, why not in between?
rowan wrote:
Sure, which gives even more credence to the theory humans were responsible for their demise. So what are we going to do? Stick them in zoos in Siberia and Canada and gawk at them? Given we have several hundred species of life-forms going extinct every year at the present, scientists might be better served trying to save more of them than worry about reviving the ones we already got rid off, IMHO.
Because all the scienticians can only work on one thing at a time collectively.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, your Haplessness. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways...
You do realise that it is possible for scientists to work on more than one thing at once, right? Aside from that, why shouldn't animals that went extinct due to human contact be made un-extinct?
I'm a god
How can you kill a god?
Shame on you, sweet Nerevar
cashead wrote:
Because all the scienticians can only work on one thing at a time collectively.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, your Haplessness. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways...
You do realise that it is possible for scientists to work on more than one thing at once, right? Aside from that, why shouldn't animals that went extinct due to human contact be made un-extinct?
Interesting. Horses originated in the Americas but were extinct on that continent long before Columbus arrived.
The frozen remains of a horse more than half a million years old have reluctantly given up their genetic secrets, providing scientists with the oldest DNA ever sequenced.
The horse was discovered in 2003 in the ancient permafrost of Canada’s west-central Yukon Territory, not far from the Alaskan border.
And although the animal was dated to between 560,000 and 780,000 years old, an international team of researchers was able to use a new combination of techniques to decipher its genetic code.
(Read about another recent find: “Wyoming Cave Yields a Trove of Ice Age Fossils — and Ancient Animal DNA“)
Among the team’s findings is that the genus Equus — which includes all horses, donkeys, and zebras — dates back more than 4 million years, twice as long ago as scientists had previously believed.
Przewalski's Horse
The Przewalski’s Horse, which lives on the steppes of central Asia, likely deviated from the lineage leading to modern domesticated horses some 50,000 years ago. (Photo: Joe Ravi)
“When we started the project, everyone — including us, to be honest — thought it was impossible,” said Dr. Ludovic Orlando of the University of Copenhagen, who coordinated the research, in a statement to Western Digs.
“And it was to some extent, with the methods available by then. So it’s clearly methodological advances that made this possible.”
Orlando and his colleagues published their findings this summer in the journal Nature; he discussed them today in a lecture at The Royal Society, London.
Previous to this, the oldest genome ever sequenced was of a 120,000-year-old polar bear — no small feat considering that the half-life of a DNA molecule is estimated to be about 521 years.
By this reckoning, even under the best conditions, DNA could remain intact for no more than 6.8 million years.
(See this recent amazing find: “First Columbian Mammoth With Hair Discovered on California Farm“)
But Orlando’s team was able to make the most of what they had for a number of reasons, he said.
The fact that the remains were frozen helped slow the rate of decay. But they also “targeted specific DNA preservation niches,” he said, like the protein called collagen found in the animal’s bones, which is more DNA-rich than other tissues.
“But also we pioneered the usage of what is called true Single Molecular Sequencing that basically reads through molecules as they stand, without further manipulation,” Orlando added.
By tracking a full, single DNA molecule, the team was able to avoid having to “amplify” fragments, which can often introduce errors.
To get a better sense of what this new, ancient genome held, Orlando’s team compared it against that of a 43,000-year-old horse, plus modern domestic horse breeds, and finally the Przewalski’s horse, an equid that makes its home on the Asian steppes and holds the title as the last surviving population of wild horses.
These full-genome comparisons allowed the scientists to construct “a molecular clock” that can reveal benchmarks in the horse’s evolutionary history, Orlando said.
And first among its revelations is that the shared ancestor of all horses, donkeys, and zebras lived more than 4 million years ago.
“So basically we know that members of the genus Equus are at least twice as old as previously believed,” he said.
The comparisons also shed light on genetic variations, and therefore population size, over time, Orlando noted, revealing “bursts of expansion” during cooler periods as grasslands grew, and contractions in size during times of warming.
(Learn more about how global warming affected the size of prehistoric mammals: “Prehistoric Global Warming Caused Dwarfism in American Mammals, Fossils Show“)
Methods like those used on the ancient horse could be applied to determine, for example, how human species like Homo heidelbergensis may have been related genetically to Homo neandertalensis and modern humans, he said.
(Explore the history of humans and horses: “Ice Age Cave Dwellers in Oregon Lived Among Extinct ‘Stout-Legged’ Horses, Fossils Show“)
“Basically genomes of that age will enable us to test the validity of the many paleontological species in our family tree,” he said, “and to determine how they relate to each other, and whether they exchanged genes or not.”
“It’s not the future,” he said of whether this technology is in reach.
When that was made, about 5 years ago, the oil price was about $110/barrel. This morning it was $55/barrel. What does that tell you?
That the price per bbl varies?
Indeed. So, why isn't it $220/bbl or more if peak oil was reached in 2012?
It'll go up again.
That's the general belief, and it has been recovering gradually, however, stockpiles are not diminishing and the OPEC deal to cut production is not making much in the way of inroads.
The simplistic model presented in the documentary is broken. There is a new reality in oil.
But what would be really cool is if they were able to bring back the quetzalcoatlus. Size of a pony with a giraffe length neck and 11 metre wing span, we could ride those things around and dispense with planes and automobiles (Manure catchers obligatory, of course)!
Indeed