Re-creating Extinct Animals

According to a recent article in the New York Times, advances in DNA sequencing and genetic engineering techniques are leading to cautious optimism among scientists that someday it may be possible to bring extinct animals back to life. But it will not be easy. DNA undergoes decay after death, falling apart into little pieces within about 60,000 years. Determining the correct sequence of an extinct species’ DNA requires special DNA sequencers that can analyze the tiny pieces and then calculate how they were aligned in the original intact molecule.

The second step would be to actually reconstruct the deciphered DNA code back into intact DNA once again. One way would be to “reverse engineer” the DNA of a close living relative species until it is similar to the known sequence of the extinct species. So far this has not been possible because of the sheer numbers of base pairs (perhaps half a million) that would need to be modified. But researchers are hopeful that techniques will be available soon to modify up to 50,000 sites at a time. The extinct species’ DNA would then be inserted into an egg of the living relative and incubated in that relative until birth.

How would your students react if it were to be announced one day that an extinct human such as a Neanderthal had been reverse engineered and then born to a modern human or a primate mother?!