These Animals Will Come Back to Life by 2028

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Scientists are working on some amazing projects to bring extinct animals back to life by 2028! The woolly mammoth, a giant furry elephant-like creature that roamed the Ice Age, is one of the top candidates. Using DNA from frozen mammoths and mixing it with modern elephant DNA, researchers hope to recreate a living version of this long-lost species. They're also trying to bring back the Tasmanian tiger, a wolf-like marsupial that disappeared in the 1930s. These "de-extinction" projects could help restore ecosystems and teach us more about conservation, though some people worry about the risks of playing with nature. If successful, these animals might walk the Earth again in just a few years!  Credit: Colossal Biosciences / YouTube TheThylacineVideos / YouTube Zoos SA / YouTube wocomoCULTURE / YouTube Chirp 07 / YouTube CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0: Fat-tailed Dunnart: By Bernard DUPONT - https://flic.kr/p/gew1wi, https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Fat-tailed_Dunnart_%28Sminthopsis_crassicaudata%29_%289998321085%29.jpg CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0: Mammoth tusk: By Jim....., https://skfb.ly/6ppAO Mammoth: By AYM STUDIO, https://skfb.ly/oQYsq tasmanian tiger: By Animalmuseum, https://skfb.ly/oVBqE Dodo [ Extinct Bird ]: By BlueMesh, https://skfb.ly/6xFuB Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00What do Paris Hilton and Chris Hemsworth have in common?

00:03Well, apparently, they both want to bring animals back to life.

00:08But we're not talking about making your favorite pet live forever.

00:11Nope, these celebs are actually helping a science company bring back animals that no

00:16longer exist, like the mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and even the iconic dodo.

00:24If everything goes according to plan, these fascinating creatures could be walking among

00:28us again by 2028.

00:31This groundbreaking effort is led by a company called Colossal Biosciences.

00:36At this very moment, they're working on a way to revive the core genes of animals that

00:41disappeared from Earth ages ago.

00:44The idea is to replicate those genes using DNA from a close, living relative.

00:50If that's all Greek to you, don't worry, we'll break it down a bit later.

00:56So, the mammoth is one of the animals they plan to bring back, and people are especially

01:02hyped about it.

01:04These incredible, massive creatures roamed parts of Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America

01:09until about 4,000 years ago.

01:13Some people might mix them up with modern elephants, but there are some key differences.

01:18For starters, they had huge curved tusks that curled inward and were used to dig for food.

01:25They also adapted to survive in freezing climates, like having two layers of thick

01:30fur to keep their blood warm.

01:32But mammoths and elephants do have a lot in common.

01:35The woolly mammoth shares 99.5% of its genes with its closest relative, the Asian elephant.

01:42That's huge because it means that mammoths are genetically closer to Asian elephants

01:46than Asian elephants are to African elephants, for example.

01:52The company's bold plan is to create a living, walking elephant-mammoth hybrid that

01:57looks just like the ones that used to roam the planet.

02:00This animal will look like, walk like, and even sound like a woolly mammoth.

02:05But most importantly, it'll be able to live in the same ecosystem that the mammoth

02:09left behind.

02:10If the scientists succeed in bringing back enough of these creatures, one of their big

02:14goals is to help restore the Arctic tundra ecosystem.

02:20But how do they actually plan to create the mammoth?

02:24Here's their plan.

02:25First, they need to find well-preserved samples of woolly mammoths in places like Alaska,

02:30for example.

02:31Then, they'll need to sequence the mammoth's genome and the genome of its closest relative,

02:36the Asian elephant.

02:38The next step is to identify the important genes that made the woolly mammoth perfectly

02:43adapted to cold temperatures, like its shaggy hair, curved tusks, and dome-shaped cranium.

02:50In other words, they need to identify which genes make the mammoth, well, the mammoth.

02:56Now comes the interesting part.

02:58They will use top-notch gene-editing tools, kind of like scissors, to cut the Asian elephant

03:04DNA and replace those spots with the mammoth sequence.

03:09This will allow them to create a new cell line and, later, an embryo.

03:15This embryo will grow inside a healthy female Asian elephant, who will be the surrogate.

03:20And just like that, a new, cold-adapted elephant will be born.

03:25Or at least, that's what scientists hope.

03:29Specialists predict that this mammoth 2.0 could be on Earth as early as 2028.

03:35The reason it will take a while is that their gestation period is around 22 months.

03:41But if that deadline feels too far for you, there is actually a chance we could get a

03:45surprise a lot sooner.

03:47That's because some of the other animals they plan to revive have a much shorter gestation

03:52period, like Australia's thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger.

03:58The company is also doing whatever it takes to give this animal a second shot at life.

04:04And the good news is that the process seems to be well-advanced.

04:08Recently, the group announced that the Tasmanian tiger's genome is about 99% complete.

04:14This animal was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea.

04:20A big part of the Tasmanian tiger population disappeared over 3,000 years ago.

04:26But about 5,000 of them kept roaming around until pretty recently.

04:32It's believed that the last thylacine passed away in 1936.

04:37To revive the Tasmanian tiger, scientists first need a sample of the ancient animal.

04:43So they took RNA molecules from a 110-year-old preserved head that had been kept in ethanol.

04:51The team was really lucky because it's rare to find old samples that are so well-preserved,

04:56allowing scientists to use advanced DNA analysis techniques.

05:01And by that, I mean they did a full, complete analysis.

05:05By studying RNA samples from important tissue areas like the tongue, nasal cavity, brain,

05:11and eyes, experts were able to learn a bunch of interesting things about the Tasmanian

05:17tiger.

05:19They could figure out how its brain worked, and also what this beast could smell, see,

05:24and taste.

05:26By the way, these semi-nocturnal animals had a special appetite for small rodents, lizards,

05:31and birds.

05:32After finding the perfect sample, the process of reviving it will be pretty much the same

05:37as with the mammoth, but with an elephant as a DNA donor, of course.

05:43In the case of the Tasmanian tiger, its closest living relative is a small marsupial called

05:48the fat-tailed dunnart.

05:51Even though this animal is small, it is a ferocious carnivore.

05:55So experts believe the whole DNA editing process will work just fine with its secrets.

06:01Their goal is to turn a fat-tailed dunnart cell into a thylacine cell.

06:06To accomplish that, they did more than 300 unique genetic changes into a dunnart cell.

06:13So there is no doubt they're pushing all the boundaries to make the dream of reviving animals

06:17a reality.

06:21This project also plans to revive the iconic dodo.

06:24You know, that funny-looking bird from the paradisiacal island of Mauritius in the Indian

06:30Ocean.

06:31And here, things get a little trickier, since we don't know much about this creature, which

06:36has origins that go back about 23 million years.

06:40Basically, the only clues we have about what dodos looked like when they were alive come

06:45from a handful of drawings, paintings, and written descriptions from the 17th century.

06:51But since those pictures are all pretty different from each other, and only a few of them were

06:56based on real, live dodos, we're still not 100% sure what they actually looked like.

07:02And as for how they behaved, well, we don't know much about that either.

07:08That's why reviving this long-absent legend will be super interesting and really enlightening.

07:14The sample they used to extract an old dodo genome came from a skull in the collection

07:19of the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

07:22And the dodo's closest living relative, which will provide the host cells, is the Nicobar

07:27pigeon, a grey bird with colourful features found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in

07:33India.

07:35If everything goes smoothly, in a couple of years we might see the fabulous and iconic

07:40dodo with our own eyes!

07:44Saving animals might sound impossible, but science and technology together can be a real

07:50game-changer, not only by protecting today's animals, but also by restoring species that

07:55disappeared from the planet long ago.

07:58Actually, we've already pulled this off!

08:02A wild goat called the Bucardo, also known as the Pyrenean ibex, went extinct in the

08:08year 2000.

08:09But three years later, scientists managed to bring it back to life, using a method pretty

08:14similar to what we've talked about in this video.

08:17It took 57 tries, but one of them finally worked, and a Bucardo clone was born!

08:24Unfortunately, the animal only lived for 10 minutes.

08:27You might think that wasn't a success, but it was actually a huge step forward in the

08:32whole animal revival field!

08:35Now specialists can only hope the project to bring back the dodo, the mammoth, and the

08:40Tasmanian tiger go a bit better!

08:44That's it for today!

08:49So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

08:54friends!

08:55Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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