Dodo Found!

[jwa1107]

This is exciting news! The remains of a well-preserved dodo were found in Mauritius.
"Well-preserved" may be going a bit far, but it looks like they might be able to get DNA and other evidence off the body. It was found in a cave in the higlands.
Read more here...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/07 ... index.html

And of course my first thought was - when does this become akin to the thylacine project? Plenty of pigeons to fill in DNA gaps...

[Tasmanian_tiger]

I'm not sure. They would still have to face the inbreeding fact. I mean, one individual is a very limited dna source. I'm no expert in the matter though.

It's great news though. Recently extinct animals (hence my forum name), interest me beyond limits (well, nearly all animals do). I don't know why.. I guess it has something dramatic, just beyond reach, they don't seem to be as long extinct as a dinosaur. (Though dinosaurs interest me too..)

I'm reading Fuller's Great Auk book, I wonder if they have any dna left of those birds. I read an apothecary has preserved the internal organs (in alcohol? Not sure, have to re-read) of the last caught pair. So, it would be interesting to see if there is any dna left in there. Allthough.. again, I don't know much about how dna is preserved the best and such.

[jwa1107]

I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Fuller's 'Extinct Birds" for some time; have you perchance read that one?

I just finished "Return of the Crazy Bird" which I would recommend for further dodo reading...

[Tasmanian_tiger]

I fear I haven't. I'm not sure too how I got the Great Auk book. I think probably through my Book store. I've been surfing on several book sites for any other material on the subject of recently extinct animals though. If I can get my hands on those, that would be lovely.

I don't have much on the dodo: I think I only read about it in Tim Flannery's 'Gap in Nature' and 'de Dodo, portret van een pechvogel' of Jan Den Hengst, so I would love to read some more on it. (And Peter Maas' site: here.

Not to side track too much from the dodo subject, but if you could recommend any other books, I would be gratefull. I'm not sure how many studies there were made about recently extinct animals (like the dodo, great auk, thylacine, falkland wolf.. etc..)

[jwa1107]

within the past year I've read:

Tasmanian Tiger: The Tragic Tale of How the World Lost Its Most Mysterious Predator by David Owen
Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo by Clara Pinto-Correia
Dodo by Errol Fuller

all of which I got from Amazon

I thoroughly enjoyed the thylacine one and the Fuller one.

if you've not read any of David Quammen's essays you should, those are good too (although few focus on recently extinct animals; more like those near extinction in most cases)

next one on my list I want to get is
A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals by Tim Flannery.

[ztdoctor]

The idea of re-creating extinct animals from DNA left in carcasses is a very attractive one. Unfortunately we are some way off being able to stitch together fragmentary bits of DNA into a coherent genome. Also anything preserved chemically is likely to have severely damaged DNA since part of the purpose of the preservation is to damage or destroy the DNA of bacteria that might try and colonise the meat.

However, all is not lost since even with our rudimentary DNA manipulation skills, people are managing to use selective breeding of living relatives to get to something close to the Aurochs (e.g. the ones at Zoorama in western France) and the Quagga. Eventually I imagine it will be possible to get enough DNA from frozen mammoths and perhaps even dried out Dodos to have a significant impact on a related species...

[johnchino34]

this is kind of good news because this means that they could use the DNA to re create the do do bird again!

[musicfool95]

(4)

Dodo is a silly dame since they didnt DO anything (even though its prononced doh-doh i like makeing dumb jokes)

[phillyDan]

I know that scientists mean well...but take heed to several things.
Rule number one...don't mess with mother nature. we have created countless super bugs, hybrids like the killer bee, liger which can't live normally, ect.
2. even when results are good "at first"...the test of time usually fails....which points back to rule number 1.
pointing back to number 2....the wrong hands ALWAYS grasp these technological advances...whether it be the military wanting a better weapon, a foolhardy genetic mixture creating something dangerous, or a madman wanting to terrorize.....
SERIOUSLY...our science fiction shows like the hulk, exosquad, deep blue sea....are becoming a lot less fictional and a lot more likely. our mind is the only reason we are on top in this world. we cant run very fast, we are phisically the weakest of the primates...we cant climb easily...we can't take a fall, no fangs,nails,durability....put our intellect into just about any animal and we would be in pretty big trouble.
i have read the history of the dodo and thought to myself that it is a shame that we can't undo the horrible damage we have done....i even felt cheated at the thought that we SHOULD be able to see a lot of these recent species that we have slaughtered off the face of the earth. but the fact remains that we.in our arrogance try to match withs with nature and make things worse. it's not the same as breeding the endangered as it is to genetically engineer. i myself am a very scientific person, so don't take me as a cinic. i just agree with jeff goldblooms character in jurassic park on this. life will find a way (step aside mankind and allow it to....it will in time if we do) and the question of that we could or if we should.

[Shearer]

I agree with you, Dan. I think curiosity will prevail over caution, though. That's the price of progress I guess.