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Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without a mate is known as parthenogenesis. In the field of biotechnology, cloning is the process of creating cloned organisms of cells and of DNA fragments.
Extinction is the termination of a taxon by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" after a period of apparent absence.
An ibex is any of several species of wild goat , distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa. The name ibex comes from Latin, borrowed from Iberian or Aquitanian, akin to Old Spanish bezerro "bull", modern Spanish becerro "yearling". Ranging in height from 70 to 110 centimetres (27–43 in) and weighing 90 to 120 kilograms (200–270 lb), ibex can live up to 20 years. Three closely related varieties of goats found in the wild are not usually called ibex: the markhor, western tur, and eastern tur.
The Alpine ibex, also known as the steinbock, is a species of goat antelope that lives in the mountains of the European Alps. It is one of seven species in the wild goat genus Carpa and its closet living relative is the Iberian ibex. The Alpine ibex is a sexually dimorphic species: males are larger and carry longer horns than females. Its coat colour is typically brownish grey. Alpine ibex tend to live in steep, rough terrain and open alpine meadows. Their sharp hooves allow them to scale nearly vertical surfaces.
Capra is a genus of mammals, the goats, composed of up to nine species, including the markhor and many species known as ibexes. The domestic goat is a domesticated species derived from the wild goat. Evidence of goat domestication dates back more than 8,500 years.
Commercial animal cloning is the cloning of animals for commercial purposes, currently, including livestock, competition camels and horses, pets, medical uses, endangered and extinct animals, as first demonstrated in 1996 for Dolly the sheep.
The Iberian ibex, also known as the Spanish ibex, Spanish wild goat and Iberian wild goat, is a species of ibex endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. Four subspecies have been described; two are now extinct. The Portuguese ibex became extinct in 1892, and the Pyrenean ibex became extinct in 2000. A project to clone the Pyrenean ibex resulted in one clone being born alive in July 2003, making it the first taxon to become "un-extinct", although the clone died several minutes after birth due to physical defects in its lungs.
The Judean date palm is a date palm grown in Judea. It is not clear whether there was ever a single distinct Judean cultivar, but dates grown in the region have had distinctive reputations for thousands of years, and the date palm was anciently regarded as a symbol of the region and its fertility. Cultivation of dates in the region almost disappeared after the 14th century AD from a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay but has been revived in modern times.
The Portuguese ibex is an extinct subspecies of Iberian ibex that inhabited the north mountainous zones of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias and western Cantabria. In size and colouration it was much like the Spanish animals, though inclining towards brown rather than black markings. Its horns were strikingly different from any of the other Iberian subspecies. They were only half the length of the Pyrenean ibex, but were almost twice as wide, and, consequently, much closer together at their base.
There have been several seeds known at different times as the oldest viable seed.
A frozen zoo is a storage facility in which genetic materials taken from animals are stored at very low temperatures (−196 °C) in tanks of liquid nitrogen. Material preserved in this way can be stored indefinitely and used for artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, and cloning. There are a few frozen zoos across the world that implement this technology for conservation efforts. Several different species have been introduced to this technology, including the Pyrenean ibex, Black-footed ferret, and potentially the white rhinoceros.
An endling is the last known individual of a species or subspecies. Once the endling dies, the species becomes extinct. The word was coined in correspondence in the scientific journal Nature.
The Western Iberian ibex or Gredos ibex is a subspecies of Iberian ibex native to Spain, in the Sierra de Gredos. It was later introduced to other sites in Spain and to northern Portugal as a replacement for the extinct Portuguese ibex.
Silene stenophylla is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. Commonly called narrow-leafed campion, it is a species in the genus Silene. It grows in the Arctic tundra of far eastern Siberia and the mountains of northern Japan. Frozen samples, estimated via radiocarbon dating to be around 32,000 years old, were discovered in the same area as current living specimens, and in 2012, a team of scientists successfully regenerated a plant from the samples.
De-extinction is the process of generating an organism that either resembles or is an extinct species. There are several ways to carry out the process of de-extinction. Cloning is the most widely proposed method, although genome editing and selective breeding have also been considered. Similar techniques have been applied to certain endangered species, in hopes to boost their genetic diversity. The only method of the three that would provide an animal with the same genetic identity is cloning. There are benefits and drawbacks to the process of de-extinction ranging from technological advancements to ethical issues.
Pithovirus, first described in a 2014 paper, is a genus of giant virus known from two species, Pithovirus sibericum, which infects amoebas and Pithovirus massiliensis. It is a double-stranded DNA virus and is a member of the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses clade. The 2014 discovery was made when a viable specimen was found in a 30,000-year-old ice core harvested from permafrost in Siberia, Russia.
The Pyrenean ibex, Aragonese and Spanish common name bucardo, Basque common name bukardo, Catalan common name herc and French common name bouquetin, was one of the four subspecies of the Iberian ibex or Iberian wild goat, a species endemic to the Pyrenees. Pyrenean ibex were most common in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southern France, and the northern Pyrenees. This species was common during the Holocene and Upper Pleistocene, during which their morphology, primarily some skulls, of the Pyrenean ibex was found to be larger than other Capra subspecies in southwestern Europe from the same time.
Necrofauna are species that were previously extinct and have been biologically revived or recreated by the process of de-extinction.
The Pyrenees conifer and mixed forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It extends along the Pyrenees mountains which run east and west along the border between France and Spain, and includes all Andorra. The ecoregion extends from the lower slopes of the Pyrenees to its highest peaks, which include Aneto, Posets, and Vignemale.
References
- ↑ Folch, J.; Cocero, M. J.; Chesné, P.; Alabart, J. L.; Domínguez, V.; Cognié, Y.; Roche, A.; Fernández-Árias, A.; Martí, J. I.; Sánchez, P.; Echegoyen, E.; Beckers, J. F.; Bonastre, A. Sánchez; Vignon, X. (2009-04-01). "First birth of an animal from an extinct subspecies (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) by cloning". Theriogenology. 71 (6): 1026–1034. doi: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2008.11.005 . ISSN 0093-691X.
- 1 2 Sallon S, Cherif E, Chabrillange N, Solowey E, Gros-Balthazard M, Ivorra S, Terral JF, Egli M, Aberlenc F. Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on genetic analysis of germinated ancient seeds and morphometric stuhe holy land. Econ. Bot. 21, 320–340 (1967)
- ↑ "Six new ancient date trees". Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
- ↑ Yong, Ed (3 March 2014). "Giant virus resurrected from 30,000-year-old ice". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2014.14801. S2CID 87146458.
- ↑ Shatilovich, Anastasia; Gade, Vamshidhar R.; Pippel, Martin; Hoffmeyer, Tarja T.; Tchesunov, Alexei V.; Stevens, Lewis; Winkler, Sylke; Hughes, Graham M.; Traikov, Sofia; Hiller, Michael; Rivkina, Elizaveta; Schiffer, Philipp H.; Myers, Eugene W.; Kurzchalia, Teymuras V. (2023-07-27). "A novel nematode species from the Siberian permafrost shares adaptive mechanisms for cryptobiotic survival with C. elegans dauer larva". PLOS Genetics. 19 (7): e1010798. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010798 . ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 10374039 . PMID 37498820.
