Scientists think they could 'de-extinct' the Christmas Island rat. But should they?
If Tom Gilbert could bring any extinct animal back to life, he said, it wouldn't be dinosaurs or woolly mammoths or any other megafauna that once roamed the planet. His is a humbler choice: the Christmas Island rat, a species that was wiped out from its island home in the Indian Ocean more than a century ago.
Gilbert, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, admitted that his pick may not be the most sensational, but he said it's likely the most feasible with today's gene-editing technology.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology, he and his colleagues examined how the Christmas Island rat could be revived, as well as the current limitations to "de-extinction." The research raises big questions about how successful de-extinction efforts can be, which types of animals should be brought back, and the ethical quandaries of tinkering with nature.
"We did this as a proof of principle that you might not get back what you think you're going to get," Gilbert said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/scientists-think-de-extinct-christmas-island-rat-rcna19218?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
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