Comments | rustydog: Ancient creatures and modern fiction

rustydog

Ancient creatures and modern fiction

Nov 19, 2008 18:27

* Scientist have sequenced the whole genome of the woolly mammoth! And they did it using nuclear DNA from hairs, not just mitochondrial DNA from bones, which is what they're normally able to do. They think woolly mammoths share 99.4% of their DNA with modern elephants (the Asian variety is a closer match than the African variety) and split off ( Read more... )

tv, writing, primeval, good things, fic, dinosaurs, paleontology

Comments 7

katie_m November 20 2008, 01:13:59 UTC

There are weird ethical issues with actually recreating the mammoth--does it then count as an endangered species that we have an obligation to protect, for instance?--but I am just about certain that the OMGCOOL factor would overwhelm those issues in about half a second. Mammoths! COOL.

rustydog November 20 2008, 18:54:41 UTC

I was more interested in just the implications for our understanding of evolution and genetic history, but now that you mention it, making a mammoth? Irresponsible but undeniably cool!

gorimek November 21 2008, 06:44:27 UTC

Once we can revive species from stored DNA, no species will be truly endangered. Only "archived".

katie_m November 26 2008, 02:53:34 UTC

Depends on your definition, though. A lot of animal behavior is inborn, but a significant amount of it is learned, too. A bunch of chimpanzees raised by humans will have lost some meaningful element of chimpness, you know?

phoenix64 November 20 2008, 15:27:40 UTC

I can't help thinking about the ramped-up Cutter angst we'll have in the next series, because you're totally right in that Stephen was where most of his angst was directed. Even his angst over the Claudia quickly paled in comparison. I thought the bit with Lester having to fight for his life was AWESOME.

rustydog November 20 2008, 18:55:49 UTC

Unless they do another reset in which Stephen is alive and this time Helen's the only one who knows it happened. But Cutter's spidey senses are tingling...

I thought the bit with Lester having to fight for his life was AWESOME.

It was! It's funny, I was totally rooting for Lester there, but later when Stephen was tracking the scorpion on the beach, and he kept turning his back on it? I was yelling at my screen for the scorpion to eat him. He was so cocky, a really stupid death would have made me laugh. I was disappointed when he got to go all noble and sacrificial. Heh.

anonymous November 20 2008, 23:38:32 UTC

They do spend a lot of time wandering around aimlessly in dangerous areas, unarmed (having left their weapons in the car or put them down to eat a pretzel). A lot. Even for a TV series.

You're so right about the England thing. It's clearly a budgetary consideration... or perhaps the show's creators are so U.K.-centric they don't think anyone will realize there's a world beyond England?

Also, how come when people leap into an anomaly, they always end up in the right time and place, and never get marooned in the mountains in Dark Ages Antarctica?

ejg25