Mammut-Jungtier liefert weltweit älteste RNA. Paläogenetiker isolierten erstmals 39.000 Jahre alte RNA aus einem Permafrost-Mammut. #Mammut #RNA #Permafrost #Genetik #Dextinction
https://www.scinexx.de/news/biowissen/mammut-jungtier-liefert-weltweit-aelteste-rna/

#Aotearoa #dextinction

"So we should be wary of the shiny offer from Texas-based biotech firm Colossal Biosciences, which announced in July that it intends to 'de-extinct' the moa, a gigantic wingless bird that was killed off about 600 years ago. This is the same company that 'brought back' the ice-age dire wolf with financial help from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. This project also has a high-profile partner in Sir Peter Jackson, the New Zealand film director behind Lord of the Rings.

In a slick promotional video, Jackson says that 'being extinct isn’t really the end of the story.' Various narrators explain that the 'nearly mythological' moa inspires the imagination. Its return will be 'empowering' and restore 'hope' as it supercharges conservation efforts and rehabilitates a vital piece of Māori cultural heritage.

All that from a moa. Except it won’t be a moa. In the case of the allegedly de-extincted 'dire wolves,' what Colossal Biosciences actually produced were some gray wolves with 20 gene edits to make them look more like dire wolves. The company’s chief science officer, Beth Shapiro, has explained that they employ the morphological species concept, which basically means: 'If they look like this animal, they are this animal.' In other words, if I paint my cat to look like a fox, it is a fox."

https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/new-zealand-predators-extinction-dire-wolves-experiment.html