Resurrect the northern penguin?

The wingless loon is proposed to be revived with the help of genetic engineering

marks, Geektimes

200 years ago, a wingless loon nested on the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Greenland, parts of Spain and New England. It is a large flightless bird of the Chistikov family. The loon died out in the middle of the 19th century. As Wikipedia tells us, this bird was the only modern representative of the genus Pinguinus.

It died out not because of natural disasters, but because it was hunted by man. Meat, fluff – everything was in motion. Already by the middle of the 16th century, the populations of the loon in various regions began to decline sharply. And in 1852, a single individual was spotted on a Large Newfoundland Bank. It looks like she was the last, or one of the last in the world. This is one of the first species of living organisms that were completely destroyed by man. Now scientists want to fix everything and return the loon with the help of the latest scientific achievements. Namely, with the help of genetic engineering.

American specialists of the research organization Revive & Restore presented their plan for the revival of the bird species destroyed many years ago.

The plan is simple – to extract DNA samples from fossils or tissue samples of birds that are stored in the vaults of some museums, and use DNA to revive the entire species. Specific sections of the genome of the wingless loon will be embedded in the genome of the closest relative of the species – the common loon (Alca torda). After that, the fertilized embryo will be implanted into another bird, which will be able to lay an egg of the required size. Most likely, it will be a goose. Yes, an ordinary goose, which clearly does not belong to the endangered species. The fact is that the currently living loon is too small to lay an egg from which a chick of a wingless loon can hatch.

According to Matt Ridley, the wingless loon is one of the few species of wingless birds in the northern hemisphere that have played an important role in the ecosystem of a number of regions. "It would be great to bring this species back," says the scientist. It was decided to conduct the experiment on the Farn Archipelago. Here the wingless loon once existed perfectly. And the local ecosystem is unlikely to suffer much if the population of birds of this species is restored in the archipelago.

Biologists claim that the restoration of the species may be important for the ecosystem of the archipelago. In addition, this may be important for humans, since the restoration of a once-destroyed bird can serve as an example of the possibility of reviving animals of other species destroyed by man. Once representatives of the species of the wingless loon (Pinguinus impennis) inhabited the coastal zones of a number of islands of the North Atlantic. These birds looked like penguins, whose relatives they are.

In previous centuries, man caused the extinction of not only this species, but also the dodo bird or a number of other species. According to a number of scientists, these animals can come back to life if a number of genetic engineering techniques are used. Other experts express concerns about whether it is possible to return the extinct species to their former habitats. Perhaps, skeptics say, this will lead to the degradation of modern ecosystems existing in these regions. It is quite difficult to answer the question whether this is so, but many scientists say that there is no danger.

No one knows how the situation really is. But perhaps soon there will be a chance to get an answer to this question.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  30.08.2016