# We can clone extinct species. Should we? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975 "2014-07-13T04:15:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/21 "2014-07-13T17:04:54Z")
> [@JWT\_Kottekoe](#): > > Even more controversial is the idea of bringing back the Neanderthals, as discussed for example by [George Church](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/neanderthal-baby-spawns-debunking-fest/). A Neanderthal would be very cool, but the real prize would be something like _H. habilis_. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/22 "2014-07-13T17:34:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > A Neanderthal would be very cool, but the real prize would be something like _H. habilis_. But my ancestors mated with Neanderthals (right?)! So I want to see one so I can see if I think “oooh sexy stuff” or if I’m more like “whuttafuck were my ancestors thinking mating with _that_?!” Only I’m just now watching Orphan Black, which is making me doubt the whole human(oid) thing… ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/23 "2014-07-13T17:37:13Z")
You can clone the body (think beef cattle) You cannot clone the mind/behavior (pet dogs/cats where the behavior is what we want) “The Ugly Little Boy” – can’t remember the author ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/24 "2014-07-13T17:41:10Z")
“TheUgly Little Boy” by Isaac Asimov 1958 short story. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/25 "2014-07-13T17:47:53Z")
I want to run a hunting lodge, stocked with woolly mammoth. At my lodge, gunpowder, metal, and plastic will be forbidden. If you want to dine on mammoth steak, like your ancestors did, you have to use a spear, like your ancestors did. (And dodge the sabertooth cats, like your ancestors did.) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/26 "2014-07-13T18:36:14Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#): > > “TheUgly Little Boy” by Isaac Asimov > 1958 short story. Also a [novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Little_Boy) co-written? reimagined? by Robert Silverberg. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/27 "2014-07-13T18:42:23Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > But my ancestors mated with Neanderthals (right?)! So I want to see one so I can see if I think “oooh sexy stuff” or if I’m more like “whuttafuck were my ancestors thinking mating with _that_?!” > > Only I’m just now watching Orphan Black, which is making me doubt the whole human(oid) thing… Alternatively, though, your ancestors were Neanderthals. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/28 "2014-07-13T18:45:27Z")
Species became extinct, even during eras when there were no humans nor asteroids to extinguish them. Species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in a changing (quickly or gradually) habitat, against the competition of other species. In other words, if there is no longer a niche in which a species can survive, it must and should and will become extinct. Humans can, if they wish, save a doomed species for a few generations, with considerable effort and expense, but that species will die out as soon as humans have something more important to do than protecting it. Supposing there was a threatened species of snail in the Tigris – how long do you think coalition troops would have carried out their mission in a way that would have protected its habitat and saved it from extinction? Humans can do whatever they like to the planet. But in a few million years, it will again be nicely speciated, with every niche occupied by thriving organisms. I read recently that eight species of birds are now breeding in the Chernobyl site. > **[Chernobyl's birds adapting to ionizing radiation](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140424223057.htm)** > > Birds in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl are adapting to -- and may even be benefiting from -- long-term exposure to radiation, ecologists have found. The study is the first evidence that wild animals adapt to ionizing radiation, and the first to... ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/29 "2014-07-13T19:08:24Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Alternatively, though, your ancestors were Neanderthals. Absolutely. Or they should be, since I’m European. But it only makes up a tiny smidgen of me now. I’m curious if homo sapiens sapiens (with tiny smidgen of Neanderthal) me sees Neanderthal as something “human” or more as “other”… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/30 "2014-07-13T19:24:22Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Absolutely. Or they should be, since I’m European. But it only makes up a tiny smidgen of me now. I’m curious if homo sapiens sapiens (with tiny smidgen of Neanderthal) me sees Neanderthal as something “human” or more as “other”… [How _you_ doin’ ?](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140421-neanderthal-dna-genes-human-ancestry-science/) ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/31 "2014-07-13T21:10:37Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > Allow me to be the Ian Malcolm here. Regardless of whether we caused a species extinction or not, the Earth has moved on and adjusted to their absence. We have no idea what the reintroduction of a species would do to current ecosystems. I think you’d be playing with fire. Life moves on, it finds a way and something else takes over that ecological niche. Have you ever played with fire? Because man, it’s a friggin’ _blast_! ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/32 "2014-07-13T21:40:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [How _you_ doin’ ?](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140421-neanderthal-dna-genes-human-ancestry-science/) Thanks for the link, that’s cool! Hmmm burly men with big hands, maybe not too aggressive and probably not autistic? Sounds good so far! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/33 "2014-07-13T21:47:40Z")
I’ve always thought my own brow ridges were a little too prominent to be pure sapiens. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/34 "2014-07-13T22:41:31Z")
Any discussion about this has to include the [Lord God Bird.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory-billed_Woodpecker) Even has it’s own [song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-GDRP8eAtg) ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/35 "2014-07-13T22:56:48Z")
Neanderthals are humans. Bringing them back as a lab experiment would be unethical. Mammoths, on the other hand, are a domain ripe for tampering. We should breed them and give them to policemen to ride in place of horses and bike patrols. And the president should ride Mammoths, whenever he’s doing a parade or something. Like when he’s going to an innaugoration. And when visiting heads of state come over, he can give them rides on his Presidential Mammoth. In fact, the Mammoth should replace the Eagle as our National Bird. We should have a paratrooper platoon of mammoths and their mahouts ready to go in the sky at all time. If evildoers threaten out embassy, we just drop a pallet of Mammoth paratroopers, and everyone says, “WTH? Is that a fucking Mammoth? Falling down from the sky? Game over man. Game. Over.” Motherfucking mammoths. I want one. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/36 "2014-07-14T00:14:36Z")
My wife wants a Tazie Tiger. She has to settle for a Dachshund. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/37 "2014-07-14T01:19:55Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Species became extinct, even during eras when there were no humans nor asteroids to extinguish them. The mention of asteroids reminds me of Dr. Malcom’s line in Jurassic Park, something like “Dinosaurs had their chance – nature selected them for extinction.” Which is true, I suppose, if you consider asteroids or comets to be part of nature. But realistically, that was a cataclysmic event outside of anything that evolution by natural selection can deal with. They weren’t really selected against so much as wiped out by one of Taleb’s black swans. Evolutionarily speaking, they adapted enormously well over a huge span of millennia. Given their history and success, I feel confident in predicting that had that collision not happened, dinosaurs would still be the dominant life form on Earth today. > [@jtur88](#): > > Species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in a changing (quickly or gradually) habitat, against the competition of other species. In other words, if there is no longer a niche in which a species can survive, it must and should and will become extinct. I’ll grant you “will,” but “must” and “should” seem like value judgements, some sort of “god” figure who imposes “natural law” on species. Presumably we’d only bring back species that were meaningful to us in some way, and in so doing, we’re creating the niche ourselves: I can pretty much guarantee that if we cloned T-Rexes at a rate sufficient to restart the species, they wouldn’t be going extinct again any time soon, because we wouldn’t let them. I would vote vociferously against releasing them back to the wild, though. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/38 "2014-07-14T03:16:11Z")
While currently the DNA of a T-Rex is out of scope for restoration, I’d love to see one running around. Just not sure how we’d handle finding out they were actually purple with annoying voices. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/39 "2014-07-14T03:33:33Z")
There’s been talk of growing animal muscle protein, to be used for people food, in petri dishes. Well, petri dishes for starters, but then in industrial-size vats when the technology is fully up and running. We could satisfy our hankering for passenger pigeon patties that way. Meanwhile, what we need in this world are [trilobites](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilobite). ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975/40 "2014-07-14T04:40:05Z")
There’s an interaction between the [Carolina parakeet](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/11/resurrecting-a-forest/) and the American Chestnut. We need to work on bringing them both back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-extinct-species-should-we/692975.md?page=3)