New genetic clues to the extinction of the passenger piegon

We have driven plenty of species to extinction. Much like the passenger pigeons. humans have exterminated passenger pigeons  by ruthless hunting in the late 19th century. Passenger pigeons had been the most abundant bird in North American. A single flock could contain more than a billion birds. Scientist now wonder why some pigeons did not survive in remote areas. A new study has been done on the pigeon’s genome. Published in the Science Journal it is said that the passenger pigeons did not have much of genetic diversity across the its vast population. Scientists looked at the DNA of the passenger pigeon and the study concluded that much of the bird;s genetic code shows signs of strong natural selection. The species was abundant for tens of thousands of years even in the face of major environmental and climate change and despite it all the species was resilient. I found this article to be interesting because I would have not thought that scientists have could find out why the passenger pigeons went extinct through genetic engineering.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/11/16/billions-or-bust-new-genetic-clues-to-the-extinction-of-the-passenger-pigeon/?utm_term=.8f18a099a0d3

https://news.ucsc.edu/2017/11/passenger-pigeons.html

Should we bring extinct species back from the dead?

Extinction has been happening for millions of years, and happens almost every single day. Whether it be a mass extinction of many different species, or a small extinction of just one small group of a species. These extinctions have a huge impact on our ecosystem and environment, so extinctions are not a positive event. Most of the time, it is us, humans, who are causing these extinctions to happen.

"De-extinction" is the process of bringing back an extinct species. For many years scientists have been wondering and working towards the de-extinction of certain species. Two of the species they feel would be very important are the woolly mammoth and the passenger pigeon. These two species had a very important impact on our environments and the food chain. If scientists really believe these species could better our environment, and only do this for environmental reasons; I think they should do it. 

Since there have been many great advances in genetic engineering scientists truly think this is something that could happen sooner, rather than later. There are quite a few methods they have in mind in order to de-extinct an animal. The first option is back-breeding; they would try to selectively breed until they come up with a species as closely similar to the extinct species. The second option is cloning; this process is done by taking a preserved cell from the extinct species, extracting that nucleus, and implanting that nucleus into an egg cell of a living, common species. A third and newest option is genetic engineering. This involves using the CRISPR and gene-editing tools to ultimately swap genes between the extinct species and living species.