Pyrenean Ibex

Pyrenean Ibex were wild goats that lived in the mountainous regions of Europe, north-central Asia, and northern Africa. According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System, there are five species of Ibex (Bradford, 2014). These species were one of the two subspecies of Spanish Ibex that went extinct. The scientific name of Pyrenean Ibex is Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica. Male and Female Ibex could be distinguished due to fur color and horn differences. Males were greyish brown with black spots on

The Brief De-Extinction of the Pyrenean Ibex As humans we are constantly intrigued by the idea of bring species that have been long extinct back to life in order study them and gain more knowledge about them. It has been estimated that about 99% of the four billion species on earth are extinct. Scientists and researcher gather what information that they can from the resources available, but there is so much more that we do not know, and are yet to find out. And with advances in cloning and genetic

Imagine living in a world where bringing back extinct species is not just fantasy. A present-day world with massive flocks of passenger pigeons flying and with woolly mammoths walking the boreal forests of the north. Believe it or not, science and technology are on the cusp of making this happen. This process is known as de-extinction, the resurrecting of species that have died out. Stanford professor Hank Greely has identified five benefits for de-extinction: Advancement of scientific knowledge

science fiction. A group of Spanish and French scientists once reversed time by bringing an animal back from extinction, but it was only to watch it become extinct again. The animal they resurrected was a kind of wild goat known as Bucardo, or Pyrenean Ibex. It lived high in the Pyrenees, the mountain range that divides France from Spain. There, it clambered along cliffs, nibbled on leaves, and endured harsh winters for thousands of years. Hunters, however, were blamed to be the number one reason

thousand and one-hundred thousand species who become extinct each year (WWF). Experts say that of all the species that existed on this planet, 99.9% are now extinct (PBS). However, what if they could be brought back? Years ago, species such as the Pyrenean

During the past few years’ scientists have come closer to cloning extinct species due to advances in technology. There are many benefits and possibilities with cloning extinct animals but there are also many ethical implications and economic issues. There are many factors that play a role in the extinction of a species, such as overharvesting and overhunting, disease and introducing new predators and food competitors. The passenger pigeon, a species scientists are trying to clone, were hunted to

In 1997, the first primate was created by embryonic cell nuclear transfer. The scientist Li Meng, John Ely, Richard Stouffer, and Don Wolf, fused an early stage embryonic cell with an enucleated monkey egg cells using electrical shock. The embryos were then implanted into a surrogate. Out of 29 cloned embryos, two monkeys were born. The female was named Neti and the male was named Ditto (“The History of Cloning” par. 25-26). This experiment showed that primates, which are the closest relatives to

In 1993, Steven Spielburg’s Jurassic Park introduced the concept of bringing extinct species back. In 2003, a team of Spanish and French scientists took Spielburg’s movie to the next level—they successfully brought back the Pyrenean ibex, a species of wild goat (93). With increasing rates of extinction, the scientific community is debating whether or not this process of de-extinction should continue to be pursued. Although it would be remarkable to visit an exhibit featuring a saber-tooth tiger or

The Pyrenean ibex became extinct in 1999 by hunters in the Pyrenees mountain range, but scientists were able to keep the cells. Floch cloned the Pyrenean ibex by taking the nuclei from those cells and injecting them into empty goat eggs. The eggs were then implanted into mothers. There were a total of 57 implantations, but only seven got pregnant. Of those seven, six ended in miscarriages due to cellular damage. When the Pyrenean ibex was born, it struggled to take in

The Passenger Pigeon has been extinct since 1914 when the last specimen, a female bird named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. though many thing of extinction as an end all be all, recent advancements in DNA technology and understanding may make extinction extinct. Scientist have concluded that it is possible to take still-viable dna cells from long-dead specimens, implant them in a closely related modern-day specimen, and have a chimera of an extinct species be born. For many extinct