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RE: How the Passenger Pigeon was hunted to extinction

in #ecology8 years ago

I don't think it would be possible with this species, at least not with our current technology. The DNA in the stuffed animals are probably degraded, and unusable for cloning purposes.

The reason as to why some scientists are trying to clone mammoths and animals from the ice age is because they have been frozen, so their DNA degrades a lot slower. I sadly don't think anyone have any frozen Passenger Pigeons laying in their freezer (and the DNA would probably have been degraded even if stored properly, which is also the reason why they have so much trouble with cloning mammoths).

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DNA takes thousands of years to erode. That's why mammoths are so hard. They died off that long ago. Feathers should still have sufficient DNA . That's why cloning dodos is on the discussion table.

Yea, seems you are right. I was just checking it out, and it seems like both the feathers and the bones from the Passenger Pigeon have enough DNA to sequence and possibly clone it.