Merry X-mas! As for "scientific exploration" entrepreneurs, we could do without many of them who are mostly in it for the money, glam and fun. And it's typically a certain profile of men, a lot more than women. I have seen many female scientists being entrepreneurs. Never saw one leading such fanciful projects. Most men are much better at selling things than pursuing genuine science. They will hire others to do the weird stuff, or will manage themselves to build some collapsible submersible, flying coffin, or whatever. (Sam Altman and even Ilya Sutskever check this case, BTW.) This initiative to recreate extinct fauna is complete nonsense at a time when we are destroying natural habitats and extinguishing species at mass scale. Of course it excites everyone's imagination to picture a tiny herd of DIY "woolly mammoths" in Siberia. And that means a lot of money could be won by achieving that or even just trying. But this, by entertaining people's fantasy that everything is possible thanks to science, like reviving any lifeform we make disappear on a daily basis, doesn't help us change course. Rather the contrary. People keep dreaming that science can solve every problem before problems (of our own making) destroy us. Like solving the energy and non renewable stuff crisis, or the climate crisis, etc. It is pure folly.
I think Joe deserves some recognition for how he makes regular videos while also constantly hiding from his predator clone. Must be a nightmare trying to edit a video and then an evil version of you turns up with an axe.
as long as they do their own thing outside human influence. sure, but imagine people being stupid enough to go and feed them, making them get closer to human settlements and as a result scare the people living there causing them to be seen as a danger that has to be dealt with. oh wait ... that *is* actually what's happening in my country in the last few years since they were brought back in the 00s. obviously that's not on the wolves, but should humans really meddle with nature so much when we're still so incapable to not be stupid for once?
That's because there were extant parent populations that new breeding groups could be pulled from and re-introduced in familiar environmental conditions in new locations. You can't discount the value of parental training in cases like this. I know we successfully rescue orphans and reintroduce them to the wild, but they're either being introduced into wild populations or being monitored as they make their own way, and very often they are at risk because they don't have all the skills a parent would have taught them. Now consider a nu-Mammoth. Mom was an asian elephant, and their intended habitat is the prairie and tundra of North America. Mom isn't going to know anything about surviving there, and humans can't really teach them what to do. The best we could do is feed them the stuff we hope they'll be able to eat in the wild and hope they can figure it out once they're released. Even then, I'm convinced the habitat we have isn't a close enough match to be able to sustain any sort of mammoth population at viable levels.
Bringing back animals that went extint relatively recently makes sense, such as the Tasmanian tiger and passenger pigeon. IF they can be successfully reintroduced to their ecosystem. The tech could also be used to save nearly extinct animals like the northern white rhino.
I disagree. Unless there's a specific function within the environment these animals serve that currently isn't being served all your doing is introducing potential problems. For example thylacine's which are so often branded about as the best candidate ignores the reason they went extinct. Due to human encroachment on their habitat the thyalassen started predating more and more on livestock which became such a hazard to humans they were hunted to extinction not for food but to protect human food supplies. Since their extinction humans impact upon Tasmania has only expanded. 50% decline in native mammals, roads criss-crossing the island and they have issues with feral cats and dogs. The enviroment is radically different then the one they were in just 100 years ago. Additionally there's the genetic issues, we have only 1 source of DNA for the thylacine. That's bound to introduce genetic issues within the population.
@louiscypher4186 yeah, reintroducing anything we killed off sounds pointless to me. We are only expanding more and more and taking more habitats away, so bringing back animals that we have already killed off is probably just gonna end up with them all dead again, so why make the poor things suffer? Right now, we should focus on saving what we have and correcting shit behaviour and searching for better ways to live without impacting the environment to such an extent. If we ever get to that point, then yeah, let's bring em back.
@@Cman04092 pretty much agree, but there are some cases where an extinct species can be beneficial. these likely aren't things that are popular though. For example there's some frogs control beetle numbers. Some moths eat aphids.
I would argue that within the last hundred years, we've erased any accurate reflection of what ecosystems these creatures died in. They can't be brought back and simply plugged in to an existing niche. This very much feels like the NdGT thing about "if we had the skills and tech to teraform Mars, we have the skills and tech to teraform Earth" like, if we have the resources to resurrect an extinct species, those resources might be better spent saving endangered but extant species... and maybe expanding past animal cloning and include plants and fungi. Joe brings this up around the 9 minute mark, but I like yeah... that should maybe have been the thesis?
Would a Passenger Pigeon if re-introduced just be bread out of existence by regular pigeons very quickly? Seems like that animal just go f'd out of existence and would be every time it is brought back.
That small difference in DNA can be massive. Just look at the barred owl and spotted owl. They can even sometimes hybridize and have fertile offspring. Yet, they are two pretty drastically different animals. I like the concept but wow does it need to be done carefully.
What is the difference genetically between us and chimpanzees? I think it's less than 2%. While we are similar in some ways, that 2% makes us extremely different also. Fun fact; chimpanzees I think are the only other animal to wage war.
You’re right. I’m quite surprised that they aren’t trying to perfectly replicate it. I think humans as a whole should be willing to give this a shot before we cut our losses on it.
Being able to create a viable organism from the DNA of an extinct species is definitely not the same thing as being able to resurrect an entire species and restore it to an original ecological niche. The natural process of speciation usually results in populations with the adaptive benefits of a broad range of genetic variation, which gives the species a leg up on adaptation when new evolutionary pressures come along, and protects offspring from the negative effects of inbreeding. De-extinction of a species from ancient DNA, even if several donor specimens could be found and used, would result in a population which has been through the worst evolutionary bottleneck in the history of life itself, and would very likely lead to significant genetic disease issues in the population.
I want them to bring back the Kauai O'o because the recording of the last male of the spieces desperately singing for a female that would never come haunts my dreams and brings me absolute melancholy.
Some people freeze up when terrified, just like rabbits. I'm sure I'm not the first person in the world to notice it, but when I noticed a rabbit freezing in place, it reminded me of when I was a child and terrified of a ghost (I don't believe in ghosts, but that's now. I was terrified of ghosts when I was about six or seven). I was so terrified that I couldn't move, I squeezed my eyes shut and froze completely. Seeing the rabbit freeze up because I was walking near by. It probably helps the rabbit survive, they blend in with the enviornment and look like a tree stump or something. They don't make noise. They freeze. We probably have those same genes as well.
Some people freeze in tense situations, but other people don't. It is a process that can get that person and the people around them to get killed. Their brains lock up and a sensation of disbelief overwhelms them which is their brain's attempt to protect them from harm. It is not a good trait to have and is an exception to the rule. It destroys the fight or flight instincts. The expression "shell-shocked" describes the inactions of a person you wouldn't want to guard your back in dangerous conditions.
I’m Australian so obviously it’s the Thylacine. Plus my understanding of it is that marsupials may be easier to clone using a surrogate species for gestation because they are so tiny when born and can complete their development in an artificial pouch. Then there’s all the other Aussie megafauna, only a few thousand years ago we had some utterly amazing animals roaming this country. Hippo sized wombats, giant kangaroos over 10 feet tall, a goanna bigger than Komodo dragons and a marsupial lion! Now that would be something to see….
Thylacaleo (sp?) would be amazing. And suitably horrifying for Australia. Oh, who am I kidding? North America had some equally-unsettling beasts! As long as we don’t get the nightmare of stamina-sturdy land crocs, I think we should be pretty good! Rocky Mountain Locust can remain extinct. Seriously. No one should revive that problem. But American bees? Hell yes
Actually I’ve got two hyperactive dobermans and I’ve often considered just for a laugh giving them a dye job with thylacine stripes and taking them for a walk in a National park and see what mayhem would ensue lol. Their body shape and size is almost identical to the Tassie Tiger.
An interesting approach is the Quagga Project in South Africa that started in 1987, where an attempt is being made to "bring back" the extinct Qwagga by selectively breeding zebras that have similar traits until they can get a close enough analog, and each generation they get closer and closer to the real thing.
Very interesting for sure!!... BUT... It also makes me think of nearly all purebred dogs and cats. In that all the selective breeding to get the ones that we know/have today, also brought a lot of health issues or problems that are found in each specific purebred!?!?
@@DOCDOCFLAMINGOS Also it's more feasible with animals that breed quickly. Things like elephants, primates, and whales don't reach sexual maturity for a pretty long time, so changes can't be made very quickly this way.
Interesting point on Smilodon. It makes sense that we still have a primal fear of carnivores like modern big cats. I often wondered why we depict monsters/demons with horns and or hooves. I'm going to assume that hunters attempting to score a kill amongst a grazer herd must've been assailed by defensive bulls that would either trample or gore them like modern bovids can. The anxiety of trying to get enough food for the tribe and survive must've scarred our collective consciousness with the shapes and armaments of these creatures
Although I am a fan of the collective unconscious, I think a simpler explanation is that the modern depictions of demons with horns and hooves are largely (although not all) drawn from Christian (and other Abrahamic religions) demonization of 'pagan' gods and mythological figures, such as Pan (a Greek nature deity associated with causing panic (yes, Pan and panic are etymologically related), and became one of the sources of the depiction of the devil in Christian imagery. There's also the association with cloven hooved animals being 'unclean'. Bulls in many religions are associated much more with positive rather than negative connotations; I can't think of many deer deities, although they do turn up here and there as pullers of divine chariots (modern example - Santa Claus and his reindeer), and deer antlers are sometimes worn by shamanic figures. The minotaur in Greek mythology is a savage monster with bull features, but I think this relates to the specific location - the city/labyrinth was associated with bulls, and so its monster logically had to incorporate one.
What would adding another keystone species or apex predators do to the existing environment? Wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone restored balance and is an amazing testimony to this.
I think the key is that wolves were re-introduced to an environment that they had only been absent from for a very short time, and no other species had yet taken over their niche. They had carved out that niche for themselves and everything had reached equilibrium, and re-introducing them just put things back closer to that previous balance. Life finds a way, though, and an ecological niche isn't likely to remain empty forever. Once another species starts to occupy that niche, I think the window for restoring things is closed. If you tried to add a species to a niche that is already occupied, I would expect competition resulting in the severe decline or extinction of either the newcomer or the established species. Perhaps even a chain reaction where one species was out-competed and pushed outside its geographical range and into new environments, where it was essentially an invasive species and possibly de-stabilized the ecosystem in its new range. Basically, I think adding a new species to a stable ecosystem would be a heck of a lot more complicated than re-introducing a species to its recent previous ecosystem.
Except that wolves were not 100% extinct in this habitat for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. Those wolves were reintroduced into 'their' habitat mere decades after they left it, not into an habitat that kept evolving without them for milennia You REALLY don't want to bring back a species into an habitat that has evolved past that species, except you're one of those people that just want to see the world burn and cherish absolute chaos (in this case, how do you do fellow chaos champion? xD)
@@lsdave42 Mammoths could actually have a really good effect on permafrost in Siberia, by reintroducing the old tundra climate (currently most is boreal pine forests, which protect the permafrost less and also stores less CO2 than the tundra grasses did). They trample young trees and bushes, creating space for more biodiversity, and push snow deeper into the ground, making the ground colder. However, you don't actually need to bring them back for it, because currently in Siberia they're already using bulldozers to mimic some of the effects, and have introduced populations of smaller grazers. There's a short video on this Pleistocene Park ruclips.net/video/RXAirenteRA/видео.htmlsi=8xB9IbXL_t6wCzT6
@@Oroberusand unfortunately, based on current research, the Australian, Tasmania, and New Guinea environments were already stretching the Thylacine to its limits. While humans, even the aboriginals that inhabited those areas first before the even more disasterous European colonization, absolutely had an effect, humans were not the ONLY cause-at least not directly through hunting and bagging incentive programs. They were already gone from Australia long before colonists got there. It’s likely dingos were already stretching their resources thin, and aboriginals accelerated the progress. There’s also the introduction of diseases they didn’t have defenses against. Now, they have not only human development taking over the landscape and reducing many prey items, there are additional competition in the form of domestic and feral dogs (that are slowly eating away at the dingo population via cross breeding, disease, and food competition), outdoor and feral cats, foxes, etc.. While I think it would be awesome if there’s a population holding out in some remote forested region of New Guinea and Tasmania, I just don’t think it’s likely, and reintroducing them to Australian would just put a ton of strain on the native species that are still desperately hoping,holding on. The invasive animals would need to be eradicated to a large extent and land would be needed to convert back into wilderness to support their territories and prey species. I just don’t see how there’s anyway one could do it ethically right now without very, very serious changes.
@@rachelann9362 This might be true for some species but not for others, as I especially pointed out wolves. Wolves didn't vanish from north america because the habitat wasn't able to provide them anymore, they were hunted out of north america, therefor reintroducing them to north america, will not put a strain on the habitat
I’ve had people tell me that one of their biggest fears is having to run from someone on the toilet with their pants down around their ankles ….i had never really considered it myself, but it was funny Joe included that touch.
@@joescottMore of this stuff, my man. You've got a natural talent for acting. Most RUclipsrs who do these sorts of things don't and so they come across as only serving their ego.
@@sandrahurst4123 Their woes are irrelevant on the road to greatness. The weak children will be prey, but the strong children will learn to ride the eagles and form tribes which will terrorize countries and bring entire nations to their knees. Once they come of age and are no longer light enough to be carried on the backs of their steed, they will sacrifice themselves in battle by skydiving into enemy leaders with spears in each hand.
Sounds awesome: "hey bros, let's bring back this dumb giant flightless bird". "cool!" "And then let's bring back this giant eagle to murder it!" "Super cool!"
@@Crazyashley42 Arrogance is of sin. I truly hope you are joking with your comment. We were put on this earth to help one another make it back to the presence of God, but the wicked destroy the wicked, so i suppose sinful people are their own predators. Fear and caution is good if it leads to repentance. If not, there really is much to fear. The disastrous events happening in our day will increase over time until the Savior returns. Then we will live in peace with all people and races of good hearts and minds. Even the wooly mammoth, if brought back, will lie down in peace. There will be no fear because all will be alive with the knowledge of Christ and all He has done for the world. God is in control of everything and uses both the wicked and the righteous to bring about His purposes. Be a Peacemaker. Learn of Christ. Happiness will follow.
Thanks for another great vid! Hands down, the Tasmanian Tiger. But in doing so, we’d also need foxes and feral cats to be under control so the Tiger can be the top predator again. They’ve only been gone for a blip on the extinction radar, I mean we have them on film so hopefully it’s something they can do, I know there’s a lot of interest here in Oz.
You may have already done a video on 'Pleistocene Park', but a deeper look at why bringing large mastodons back to the steppe tundra, is potentially so important, (Potentially, very , very important.) would have been interesting. Great vid. Thank you.
FINALLY, someone who understands how to weave an ad into their video in an entertaining way with a perfect segway! Oh, and an entertaining presentation of interesting information. Ranks you right up with Kyle Hill (although YOUR segway was better).
I think dodos would be a great way to see weather bringing back a mammoth can be good idea, as dodos are a really recent species that died out and lived on a fairly small habitat like Mauritius, dodos would also be a great attempt at looking at the flaws of de extinction technology.
But where would they be reintroduced? Their only natural habitat now has an ecosystem full of predators, which is why they went extinct in the first place. Any other ecosystem lacking predators would be disrupted by the introduction of dodos.
@@reshpeck A significant number of historical sources talking about dodos mentioned how tasty and docile they were, that sounds like the perfect farm bird to me.
Well, animals created in labs would have legal protections and the corporation owning it could sue the people killing it and destroying their environment. But they'll probably going to try to charge you for seeing one in the wild too.
The Tarpits are definitely arguably more interesting than anything in Los Angeles. There is nothing older in the city than what's contained in that exhibit. It's one place you can visit where you'll look at something and it's hard to wrap your brain around how old are those bones -- which is merely Joe Scott standing next to the remains of a long extinct animal, you can ask him his age.
"10 years out till you see a wolly mammoth" Me, who seen the wolly mammoth genetic engineering concern 15+ years ago and they also claimed they were gonna have a wolly mammoth in 5-10 years:
i'd be down to watch a video where you talk about the bacterial infections becoming immune to modern antibiotics that you mentioned if you're looking for video ideas!
On a trip around California many years ago, friend and I stopped by the Tar Pits and found them so interesting! However, the lasting memory I have of them is that some small, black bird took it into its mind to attack me, at least three times. The little bugger wouldn't leave me alone! Despite that, the pits and what is found in them (and how the stuff is found) was wonderous. Love me some science!
Seeing that "Predator Joe" skit in the patreon stream was fantastic, seeing it in the actual Video was even better! Keep up the great work Joe and have a great 2024. Happy holidays!!!
I have a fun memory of the La Brea Tarpits in the late 1980s. I was visiting the LA area and driving down Wilshire Blvd. and came across it, and I had to go around a few blocks to make sure I was seeing it correctly, because it's so close to downtown LA! Of course Google Maps and the Internet weren't a thing for travelers back then. I felt like I had found a treasure trove of ancient history and over 35 years later, I remember that visit fondly.
Joe: You got this, Bro! This is definitely your thing (talent) or i guess one of many. Thank you for informing us in this cool format. I'm a 51 year old man, and i watch these videos with my 12 yo son, and it's a great experience to learn new stuff together; Even though English is our 2nd language (we're from Mexico). Please keep teaching us. We appreciate it. Peace! El Charlie
Predator Clone is hilarious! It (of course) would be a bit scary if it were real. Using Predator Clone to segue into the Incogni commercial was pretty clever. All Hail Zoe! You freakin crack me up Joe, you really do. I might be simple, but there is a cognitive sympathetic resonance there I am certain. That means you are sick and sad and twisted, just like me. In terms of extinctions, an additional 200 species was added just this year, to the list of 44,000 species in danger of extinction. It was fun while it lasted.
I made up this idea in my head a while ago where I thought about how hilarious it would be to hire a guy to just stalk and randomly attack you as you go about your day just to keep you sharp
Awesome segue into the Incogni ad and although I anticipated the ending it was still funny. The whole predator clone thing was pretty funny. If we do dextinctions, I would like to see them be things we more recently did in than the mammoth, like the dodo or the passenger pigeon. I think the climate has changed too much for something like the mammoth to be brought back.
This kind of program would be great for rhinos (especially the extinct Black Rhino). I would also LOVE to see the Caspian Tiger and Archaeoindris (giant lemur) come back. I don't think they would become invasive, and they would be cool to have back (in an appropriate habitat, of course).
No. The records clearly show, they went extinct from the introduction of multiple non-native species, including predators and that starving ships crews compounded the problem by eating quite a lot of them. The habitat is still largely intact but Dodo's could not return to Madagascar, because those same predators and other introduced species are still there.
Just because they weren’t tasty doesn’t mean they weren’t eaten, especially by stranded ship crew that are looking for quick and easy food sources when their food supplies ran out. It’s like they were the Carolina parakeets and poisonous to eat. You’ll eat anything once you’re desperate enough, even knowing that thing might kill you in the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if fugu was developed that way and eventually morphed into a delicacy for those with a death wish.
Maybe We Should Focus On Stopping Climate Change First Since Preventing Extinction Would Be Pointless And Probably Be More Rapid Time Goes On.. Climate Is Getting Worse Every Year Sadly
I just listen to your videos while i work most of the time because i dont want to miss what you have to offer, but I can't just sit and watch them...... having said that, I was listening to this video while cutting something on my table saw, and that bit you did for your sponsor was the best thing I've "seen" all week! I would love to see what you could do with a full studio and a big production company behind you. Keep it up Joe you do an amazing job with these videos.
While it's true that sailors did eat dodo, the things that they wrote about doing so suggest that "delicious" is not a word they ever used to describe it. Many writings from the time describe them as unpleasant or foul tasting. The most flattering writings tend to describe them as bland and lacking in flavor. But when you're a sailor far from civilization in the times before refrigeration, you don't turn your nose up at fresh meat, even if it isn't especially good.
This comes hot on the heels of an Extra History video which calls into question a lot of what we have been told about the dodo bird. From the perspective of that video, I think we have even more reason to bring that species back.
@@mattsomeone610 Yes, they would eat the Dodo, and they would also cut the Mammoth's face off with a chainsaw to get the ivory, just like they already do with with elephants.
I can't see a reason to bring either back except science. I think our efforts would be better spent trying to reseed our planet with existing life. Blue whales still haven't repopulated since whaling in the 1920's.
I see eagles reasonably often. They are making a comeback. What I don't see is all of the insects. What the heck has been happening to most of the bugs? I can remember times, and it wasn't that long ago, when the air was filled with so many flying insects that I feared breathing them in. Now I go through whole summers where nothing remotely like that happens. And speaking of the obvious, what has been happening to the turkey vultures (some people will probably confuse these with the eagles)? There are still a lot of them around, but in my region, I think the number of these birds is less than 10% of what it was just ten years ago. And right up there with the insects is the bats. What has happened to the bats? Are most people so oblivious that they haven't noticed that the bats have almost disappeared?
I think it's important to note that Beth Shapiro is actually working for Colossal now. She's the head of the dodo project. But to answer your question, in addition to the ones Colossal is already trying to bring back, Doedicurus and Megalonyx would at least be cool if not beneficial. And, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see a live Smilodon or Titanis...
Joe, I think I have seen every video you have ever made, and I think that this side clip/sponsor part/sub plot/whatever is the very best one you have ever made. That was amazing and sooo very well done. Excellent job. 👍😀 (and that says a lot because you have had many good ones, and it also made me make my first comment ever on one of your videos 👍)
Merry Christmas Joe! You are a great source of information and laughter! BTW, I love how your butler clone isn't fazed by the psycho clone. 💕 Good girl zoe! ❤
I feel like, if they are relatively recently extinct & they still have a habitat, it'd be worth it. That would put a lot of the American extinct bird species in play- Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Ivory Billed Woodpecker, etc.
Two votes for the Carolina Parakeet. They were the only thing that eats Cockleburrs, and now we are over-run with Cockleburrs everywhere. So many Cockleburrs all over. It's nuts how one little bird can be so important.
Instinctive behavior is passed down by the mother's RNA, which would not exist in this case. Learned behavior is passed down by parents, which would not exist in this case. Cloned animals would have no idea how to interact with their environment and would likely be more a destructive element than a restorative one.
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj Nothing is passed down by RNA. While very early life probably encoded genetic information in RNA, that function has been subsumed by DNA except in the case of certain viruses. It's almost a certainty that instinctive behavior is encoded in DNA because where else would it come from? But an organism, assuming it's a garden-variety diploid, receives half its DNA from each parent. Once the gametes fuse, the resulting zygote neither knows nor cares which parent provided which alleles. The only genetic information that comes solely from the mother is mitochondrial DNA, which is not used to code for proteins in the larger organism. (A 2018 study reported that humans appear to inherit mitochondrial DNA from both parents. This has been disputed.) The big problem, as you pointed out, is learned behaviors. Can Asian elephants impart learning that will help their woolly mammoth offspring survive in the Arctic? Probably not. Of course, unless something miraculous happens really soon, there won't be an Arctic environment for the new mammoths to inhabit, so it's pretty much moot.
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj I think you make a good point. I wonder, though, in the case of Wooly Mammoth is the behavior of existing elephant herds close enough to introduce them into, until enough exist to form an exclusive wooly mammoth herd.
What will happen is rather than addressing the actual issues, people will continue to spin their wheels and end up using this technology to transform humans into bizarre constructs that can survive in the horrible conditions humanity continues to create.
I'm reminded of the controversial push to start farming rhinos. it's currently illegal to farm rhinos for most (or any) reason. but the plan had been to breed them in captivity for food, leather, and yes: ivory. the plan would allow rhino populations to recover faster by using private lands and financial incentives, a portion of the increased population could be released into the wild to the extent that the wilds could support them. and farmed ivory would tank the price of ivory, effectively killing the illicit ivory trade, which, of course, starts with poaching. on this topic, the recovered population of the more common rhino types would allow the recently-extinct varieties; for which we have complete dna samples and records; to be recovered as well, using the newly-common-rhinos to incubate and bare de-extinct calves. it would be like incubating a cloned embryo of a Bison/buffalo in a common cow...
Ah yes, so many flower species missing from the UK, and it's been decades since I've seen a Camberwell Beauty butterfly. On reflection, I think it probably is better to start with the most recent losses and work backwards, since I remember an article by the World Wide Fund For Nature that claimed every time a species went extinct, an 'average' of 50 other interconnected species die with it. Therefore, it would make sense to help the present day species that are ailing as a result of species, now extinct, that depended on them in some way. Work backwards through the timeline of extinctions and get others off the Red Data list, and we can improve environments 'in readiness' for those species we aim to bring back next. Choosing species like Woolly Mammoths - for whatever reason than they're big and impressive - may not work because the plants are not there, because the bugs that pollinated them are not there, because the dung of the prehistoric predators the aforementioned bugs lay their eggs in aren't there. In this respect, choosing a Woolly Mammoth to restore might result in a slow, sad re-extinction for that animal. I think we humans ought to do less than what's really impressive, and do what is thought out sensibly to support the target creatures scientists want to bring back.
I like how the CEO of Colossal Bio stated that they want to bring back keystone species in order to strengthen biodiversity. The mammoth, Dodo, and Tasmanian cat are not keystone species.
The Tasmanian Tiger is a Thylacine not a cat. It also went extinct due to human interference. The Tasmanian Devil has also suffered significant population reduction due to human activities and diseases.
@rosebrent9440 ok, I understand that. It is still not a keystone species. Now, bringing back the Passanger Pigeon, which is actually a keystone species. Having it back in a large enough, breeding population, that can actually support itself. That would absolutely destroy our current farms 😆
The Tasmanian Tiger was in fact a keystone species. A primary predator of Australia alongside dingoes. I think they would be the most advantageous out of the Wooly Mammoth and Dodo bird since they used to play an important role in Tasmania’s ecosystem. Additionally Tasmania is also a very isolated region from the world with some of the most beautiful and well preserved environments making it an easy environment to re introduce the Tasmanian tiger, if it is extinct 👀.
@kazpaapzak8637 You kind of made your own point mute by saying that the Tasmanian tiger was a predator alongside the dingos, so there was a species already there to take the place of the Tigers. If you're going to make an ecological argument, you might get away with the Dodo being gone, reducing the fertility of the soil on the islands where it was found.
Sorry mate, reports from the time say they tasted disgusting & not delicious. Dodo eggs were predominantly eaten by rats & pig brought to the island by sailors.
I had to Google this and you're totally right. Apparently they weren't very good, with reports being that the meat was tough. Obviously didn't stop them from eating them anyways. What a shame.
See... the dodo story always gets to me. Because the received wisdom is that the dodo was tasty AF. Nowadays, rumour has it that the tapir is also pretty good eating, however its also endangered. So Im like... ofc I shouldnt eat it, because its endangered. But on the other hand, what if it goes extinct and I never got to taste one, maybe I should chow down while Ive got the chance? Im really conflicted, and I just love tasty things.
Interestingly, some animals have been saved because they were tasty. Red wattle hogs, for instance, were bred back into widespread existence because of several factors - one being their meat.
@@nod4eight945 Well the reason for that is probably because there was a full human population to turn it into livestock, while the colonists that found the Dodo's probably didn't have the equipment, people, or maybe even knowhow on how to turn them into livestock.
That is one freaky looking critter! I'd never heard of it, so thanks for mentioning it. But I think I'd want it to go extinct again soon after it was brought back! lol
It is an interesting concept, and one I've been thinking of a lot lately. Animals in zoos that have never been shown how to act, have the genes from their species. Could be the same with people. Different nationalities have stereotypes, which could be from their family hereditary over generations and generations of genes.
Here is one of my concerns , although scientists like to laugh at crazy religious people, they are just as susceptible to short sightedness and magical thinking. I loved the quote you included about best intentions. I've always liked your videos, they are getting better and better
Hi Joe I would just like to thank you in 2019 I came down with pancreatic cancer found your Chanel and been watching ever since when I watch you now it takes me back to a bad time that you made bearable Thank you 👍
Be selfish > Reintroduce Passenger Pigeons > Roast chestnuts! Once upon a time, these flocks ‘dropped’ so much guano that the American Chestnut wasn’t even phased by the blight that’s currently killing them all. Wild Pigeon = also tasty!
The monsters under the bed concept isn’t that far fetched. Anthropologists studying monkeys have recognized that essentially all monkeys are innately afraid of snakes (as are some people). It is hypothesized that this fear is a genetic left over from the days where all primates lived in trees, a lifestyle that brought them into direct contact with snakes. The guys/gals that were fast enough to live ‘to tell’ about their encounters lived, the others… well, they didn’t. We too may have a genetic memory of the days when a bump in the night was something not to be ignored.
super impressed with you rolling your running gag into your sponsorship. I don't need incogni right now but if I did, I would just for that! what doing that did (if you're looking for feedback) is make me watch the whole ad instead of skipping ahead once I heard who sponsored the video.
In my experience, after taking a cruise for the first and only time, I learned that nearly the entire crew was from the Philippines. I asked other people I know of that have gone on cruises, and they had similar observations, but their crew was Malaysian. I don't think it would take much research to expose the bad conditions and labor demands that are required of the crew. They are likely severely underpaid as well. I theorize that when you add those circumstances to an emergency situation it would be unreasonable to expect the crew to go above and beyond to help passengers. It would be like expecting the 3rd class passengers to help load all of the 1st and 2nd class passengers before themselves. Not what they signed up for and not nearly enough compensation. The captain has zero excuse, and neither do the cruise lines for their deplorable labor practices.
I think the Dodo and the Thylacine are important projects. The mammoth? Not so much. There are plenty of other species that have disappeared more recently that should be the focus of those efforts.
I suppose this is a good idea in the big picture sense, like for example we're probably going to need a lot more beasts of burden when we finally deplete all of our oil, lithium, cobalt, etc etc etc...Oh well, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of us evolutionary survivors and the critters we manage to jump start in the near future :)
Imagine having a bank of all the genomes of all the extinct species on earth and knowing where they fit into their environments so that five hundred years from now we can just factory reset whole environments back up and running
I would like to see the Steller's sea cow brought back. The idea of a big manatee like animal swimming about in the Arctic Ocean would have its charms.
@ 4:45 I thought you said this was the "6th grade" extinction. As it seems very few people seem to be smarter than a 5th grader these days, it would be an apt name.
I was able to take my students on a field tip to tour and meet scientists from Colossal here in Dallas a couple weeks ago. Their facility is amazing and Nick from the scientist group was a rockstar with me and my students. You should have visited them for this video.
What's to stop people from just driving them into extinction again though? I live in the Netherlands and my country is a hellscape because the governement, farmers and companies have chosen money over nature every single time.
I find it rather disconcerting that when talking about bringing back extinct species, there's so much focus on woolly mammoths. What about the dozens of small species, little marsupials and mammals, fish, crustaceans, frogs, birds, lizards, snakes, insects, worms, other invertebrates, corals? What's the point of bringing back a woolly mammoth which had evolved to live in cold areas, when the planet is heating up at a rate faster than it has ever done before (maybe excluding super-volcano eruption and large asteroid impact type scenarios) and we're not only at a loss to stop it, but fossil fools are perpetually adding to the problem and praying that some future technology that doesn't exist yet will fix it. Let the mammoths RIP. Save a cassowary, or some other key species that's seriously under threat.
This is always the case when it comes to anything animal. Whether it’s de-extinction, to which endangered species the money goes and even with animal rights activism. Charismatic animals always get the most. You always hear about saving the panda for example. And most animal rights activists get raging mad when they hear about culling feral cats, even though it’s the world’s worst invasive species that’s threatening literal hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians with extinction and caused lots to go extinct already like the Dodo (with the help of rats, pigs and some monkeys IIRC macaques) Even if they’re merely sterilized and released as they demand, it will just keep on killing many animals every day. They’re also near impossible to catch alive, handle and to make sure none keeps eluding.
Happy Holidays Joe and crew🤗 Thank you all for the amazing content! To quote the legend himself "have a a safe and happy new year love ya guys and take care"
Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for a great year!
Thanks for the video. It's a wonderful Christmas present. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Joe!! Lol your channel has been a blessing these past couple years. Top tier content creation.
Merry X-mas!
As for "scientific exploration" entrepreneurs, we could do without many of them who are mostly in it for the money, glam and fun. And it's typically a certain profile of men, a lot more than women. I have seen many female scientists being entrepreneurs. Never saw one leading such fanciful projects.
Most men are much better at selling things than pursuing genuine science. They will hire others to do the weird stuff, or will manage themselves to build some collapsible submersible, flying coffin, or whatever. (Sam Altman and even Ilya Sutskever check this case, BTW.)
This initiative to recreate extinct fauna is complete nonsense at a time when we are destroying natural habitats and extinguishing species at mass scale.
Of course it excites everyone's imagination to picture a tiny herd of DIY "woolly mammoths" in Siberia. And that means a lot of money could be won by achieving that or even just trying.
But this, by entertaining people's fantasy that everything is possible thanks to science, like reviving any lifeform we make disappear on a daily basis, doesn't help us change course. Rather the contrary.
People keep dreaming that science can solve every problem before problems (of our own making) destroy us. Like solving the energy and non renewable stuff crisis, or the climate crisis, etc. It is pure folly.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays Joe!
Merry Christmas Joe!
(also..) All Hail Master Predator Zoe!
I think Joe deserves some recognition for how he makes regular videos while also constantly hiding from his predator clone. Must be a nightmare trying to edit a video and then an evil version of you turns up with an axe.
Are we sure there's only one predator clone? Harcourt Fenton Mudd ended up with five hundred android copies of his wife, Stella.
How can we be sure the "evil" one isn't the real Joe trying to remove the imposter!!!
@@tavdy79 Yes it true
If only Inspector Clouseau had this technology poor Kato would never had suffered so much.
Never make a clone of a clone
I know that they weren't extinct, but wolves and bison re-introduction to their habitat seems to have had positive results.
as long as they do their own thing outside human influence. sure, but imagine people being stupid enough to go and feed them, making them get closer to human settlements and as a result scare the people living there causing them to be seen as a danger that has to be dealt with.
oh wait ... that *is* actually what's happening in my country in the last few years since they were brought back in the 00s. obviously that's not on the wolves, but should humans really meddle with nature so much when we're still so incapable to not be stupid for once?
They didn't decide due to natural causes though.
Humans practly wiped them out.
That's a big difference
That's because there were extant parent populations that new breeding groups could be pulled from and re-introduced in familiar environmental conditions in new locations. You can't discount the value of parental training in cases like this. I know we successfully rescue orphans and reintroduce them to the wild, but they're either being introduced into wild populations or being monitored as they make their own way, and very often they are at risk because they don't have all the skills a parent would have taught them.
Now consider a nu-Mammoth. Mom was an asian elephant, and their intended habitat is the prairie and tundra of North America. Mom isn't going to know anything about surviving there, and humans can't really teach them what to do. The best we could do is feed them the stuff we hope they'll be able to eat in the wild and hope they can figure it out once they're released. Even then, I'm convinced the habitat we have isn't a close enough match to be able to sustain any sort of mammoth population at viable levels.
That's the point, wooly mammoth habitats don't exist.
@@Aislinsweetdreamstundra exists.
Bringing back animals that went extint relatively recently makes sense, such as the Tasmanian tiger and passenger pigeon. IF they can be successfully reintroduced to their ecosystem. The tech could also be used to save nearly extinct animals like the northern white rhino.
I disagree. Unless there's a specific function within the environment these animals serve that currently isn't being served all your doing is introducing potential problems. For example thylacine's which are so often branded about as the best candidate ignores the reason they went extinct.
Due to human encroachment on their habitat the thyalassen started predating more and more on livestock which became such a hazard to humans they were hunted to extinction not for food but to protect human food supplies.
Since their extinction humans impact upon Tasmania has only expanded. 50% decline in native mammals, roads criss-crossing the island and they have issues with feral cats and dogs. The enviroment is radically different then the one they were in just 100 years ago.
Additionally there's the genetic issues, we have only 1 source of DNA for the thylacine. That's bound to introduce genetic issues within the population.
@louiscypher4186 yeah, reintroducing anything we killed off sounds pointless to me. We are only expanding more and more and taking more habitats away, so bringing back animals that we have already killed off is probably just gonna end up with them all dead again, so why make the poor things suffer?
Right now, we should focus on saving what we have and correcting shit behaviour and searching for better ways to live without impacting the environment to such an extent. If we ever get to that point, then yeah, let's bring em back.
@@Cman04092 pretty much agree, but there are some cases where an extinct species can be beneficial.
these likely aren't things that are popular though. For example there's some frogs control beetle numbers. Some moths eat aphids.
I would argue that within the last hundred years, we've erased any accurate reflection of what ecosystems these creatures died in. They can't be brought back and simply plugged in to an existing niche.
This very much feels like the NdGT thing about "if we had the skills and tech to teraform Mars, we have the skills and tech to teraform Earth" like, if we have the resources to resurrect an extinct species, those resources might be better spent saving endangered but extant species... and maybe expanding past animal cloning and include plants and fungi. Joe brings this up around the 9 minute mark, but I like yeah... that should maybe have been the thesis?
Would a Passenger Pigeon if re-introduced just be bread out of existence by regular pigeons very quickly? Seems like that animal just go f'd out of existence and would be every time it is brought back.
I’m not going to lie Joe this was one of the smoothest segues you’ve done from topic to comic bit to advertisement. Nicely done!
Absolutely in favor of this. It would be perfectly appropriate for the Dodo to inherit the Earth after humanity eventually kills itself off.
That small difference in DNA can be massive. Just look at the barred owl and spotted owl. They can even sometimes hybridize and have fertile offspring. Yet, they are two pretty drastically different animals. I like the concept but wow does it need to be done carefully.
What is the difference genetically between us and chimpanzees? I think it's less than 2%. While we are similar in some ways, that 2% makes us extremely different also. Fun fact; chimpanzees I think are the only other animal to wage war.
Chimpanzees have also recently been seen learning to use spears. A frightening and recent development.
You’re right. I’m quite surprised that they aren’t trying to perfectly replicate it. I think humans as a whole should be willing to give this a shot before we cut our losses on it.
The difference in DNA squences between male chimps and male humans is less than the difference between male humans and female humNS.
Being able to create a viable organism from the DNA of an extinct species is definitely not the same thing as being able to resurrect an entire species and restore it to an original ecological niche. The natural process of speciation usually results in populations with the adaptive benefits of a broad range of genetic variation, which gives the species a leg up on adaptation when new evolutionary pressures come along, and protects offspring from the negative effects of inbreeding. De-extinction of a species from ancient DNA, even if several donor specimens could be found and used, would result in a population which has been through the worst evolutionary bottleneck in the history of life itself, and would very likely lead to significant genetic disease issues in the population.
I want them to bring back the Kauai O'o because the recording of the last male of the spieces desperately singing for a female that would never come haunts my dreams and brings me absolute melancholy.
Me too 😢
God i've heard that recording and it's haunting
This is so sad!
Some people freeze up when terrified, just like rabbits. I'm sure I'm not the first person in the world to notice it, but when I noticed a rabbit freezing in place, it reminded me of when I was a child and terrified of a ghost (I don't believe in ghosts, but that's now. I was terrified of ghosts when I was about six or seven). I was so terrified that I couldn't move, I squeezed my eyes shut and froze completely. Seeing the rabbit freeze up because I was walking near by. It probably helps the rabbit survive, they blend in with the enviornment and look like a tree stump or something. They don't make noise. They freeze. We probably have those same genes as well.
Some people freeze in tense situations, but other people don't. It is a process that can get that person and the people around them to get killed. Their brains lock up and a sensation of disbelief overwhelms them which is their brain's attempt to protect them from harm. It is not a good trait to have and is an exception to the rule. It destroys the fight or flight instincts. The expression "shell-shocked" describes the inactions of a person you wouldn't want to guard your back in dangerous conditions.
I’m Australian so obviously it’s the Thylacine. Plus my understanding of it is that marsupials may be easier to clone using a surrogate species for gestation because they are so tiny when born and can complete their development in an artificial pouch. Then there’s all the other Aussie megafauna, only a few thousand years ago we had some utterly amazing animals roaming this country. Hippo sized wombats, giant kangaroos over 10 feet tall, a goanna bigger than Komodo dragons and a marsupial lion! Now that would be something to see….
Thylacaleo (sp?) would be amazing. And suitably horrifying for Australia.
Oh, who am I kidding? North America had some equally-unsettling beasts!
As long as we don’t get the nightmare of stamina-sturdy land crocs, I think we should be pretty good!
Rocky Mountain Locust can remain extinct. Seriously. No one should revive that problem. But American bees? Hell yes
Yes... because all the animals still in Australia are so gentle and safe.
I'm sure those would make great pets
✌ 🇦🇺
Actually I’ve got two hyperactive dobermans and I’ve often considered just for a laugh giving them a dye job with thylacine stripes and taking them for a walk in a National park and see what mayhem would ensue lol. Their body shape and size is almost identical to the Tassie Tiger.
I feel like they've talked about bringing the mammoth back longer than it has been extinct
Gr8 point. Agreed.
Yeah, it just sounds like an excuse to get some fundraise.
@@CloudyPuzzleror to do some other gene manipulation = weapon.
I doubt it will happen anytime soon. The ethical question of putting an unknown embryo into an elephant and bringing it to term is way too much.
I guess math is not your forte. Cute thing to say though.
Your creativity for incorporating your ad sales into your shows is incredibly unique.
An interesting approach is the Quagga Project in South Africa that started in 1987, where an attempt is being made to "bring back" the extinct Qwagga by selectively breeding zebras that have similar traits until they can get a close enough analog, and each generation they get closer and closer to the real thing.
Very interesting for sure!!... BUT... It also makes me think of nearly all purebred dogs and cats. In that all the selective breeding to get the ones that we know/have today, also brought a lot of health issues or problems that are found in each specific purebred!?!?
@@DOCDOCFLAMINGOS Also it's more feasible with animals that breed quickly. Things like elephants, primates, and whales don't reach sexual maturity for a pretty long time, so changes can't be made very quickly this way.
I remember reading something about a similar effort to “reverse engineer” the aurochs.
Interesting point on Smilodon. It makes sense that we still have a primal fear of carnivores like modern big cats. I often wondered why we depict monsters/demons with horns and or hooves. I'm going to assume that hunters attempting to score a kill amongst a grazer herd must've been assailed by defensive bulls that would either trample or gore them like modern bovids can. The anxiety of trying to get enough food for the tribe and survive must've scarred our collective consciousness with the shapes and armaments of these creatures
It's even worse than that. They were getting food for their own wives and children; the tribe was secondary.
Although I am a fan of the collective unconscious, I think a simpler explanation is that the modern depictions of demons with horns and hooves are largely (although not all) drawn from Christian (and other Abrahamic religions) demonization of 'pagan' gods and mythological figures, such as Pan (a Greek nature deity associated with causing panic (yes, Pan and panic are etymologically related), and became one of the sources of the depiction of the devil in Christian imagery. There's also the association with cloven hooved animals being 'unclean'. Bulls in many religions are associated much more with positive rather than negative connotations; I can't think of many deer deities, although they do turn up here and there as pullers of divine chariots (modern example - Santa Claus and his reindeer), and deer antlers are sometimes worn by shamanic figures. The minotaur in Greek mythology is a savage monster with bull features, but I think this relates to the specific location - the city/labyrinth was associated with bulls, and so its monster logically had to incorporate one.
What would adding another keystone species or apex predators do to the existing environment? Wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone restored balance and is an amazing testimony to this.
I think the key is that wolves were re-introduced to an environment that they had only been absent from for a very short time, and no other species had yet taken over their niche. They had carved out that niche for themselves and everything had reached equilibrium, and re-introducing them just put things back closer to that previous balance.
Life finds a way, though, and an ecological niche isn't likely to remain empty forever. Once another species starts to occupy that niche, I think the window for restoring things is closed.
If you tried to add a species to a niche that is already occupied, I would expect competition resulting in the severe decline or extinction of either the newcomer or the established species. Perhaps even a chain reaction where one species was out-competed and pushed outside its geographical range and into new environments, where it was essentially an invasive species and possibly de-stabilized the ecosystem in its new range.
Basically, I think adding a new species to a stable ecosystem would be a heck of a lot more complicated than re-introducing a species to its recent previous ecosystem.
Except that wolves were not 100% extinct in this habitat for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. Those wolves were reintroduced into 'their' habitat mere decades after they left it, not into an habitat that kept evolving without them for milennia
You REALLY don't want to bring back a species into an habitat that has evolved past that species, except you're one of those people that just want to see the world burn and cherish absolute chaos (in this case, how do you do fellow chaos champion? xD)
@@lsdave42 Mammoths could actually have a really good effect on permafrost in Siberia, by reintroducing the old tundra climate (currently most is boreal pine forests, which protect the permafrost less and also stores less CO2 than the tundra grasses did). They trample young trees and bushes, creating space for more biodiversity, and push snow deeper into the ground, making the ground colder.
However, you don't actually need to bring them back for it, because currently in Siberia they're already using bulldozers to mimic some of the effects, and have introduced populations of smaller grazers. There's a short video on this Pleistocene Park ruclips.net/video/RXAirenteRA/видео.htmlsi=8xB9IbXL_t6wCzT6
@@Oroberusand unfortunately, based on current research, the Australian, Tasmania, and New Guinea environments were already stretching the Thylacine to its limits. While humans, even the aboriginals that inhabited those areas first before the even more disasterous European colonization, absolutely had an effect, humans were not the ONLY cause-at least not directly through hunting and bagging incentive programs. They were already gone from Australia long before colonists got there. It’s likely dingos were already stretching their resources thin, and aboriginals accelerated the progress. There’s also the introduction of diseases they didn’t have defenses against. Now, they have not only human development taking over the landscape and reducing many prey items, there are additional competition in the form of domestic and feral dogs (that are slowly eating away at the dingo population via cross breeding, disease, and food competition), outdoor and feral cats, foxes, etc..
While I think it would be awesome if there’s a population holding out in some remote forested region of New Guinea and Tasmania, I just don’t think it’s likely, and reintroducing them to Australian would just put a ton of strain on the native species that are still desperately hoping,holding on. The invasive animals would need to be eradicated to a large extent and land would be needed to convert back into wilderness to support their territories and prey species. I just don’t see how there’s anyway one could do it ethically right now without very, very serious changes.
@@rachelann9362 This might be true for some species but not for others, as I especially pointed out wolves. Wolves didn't vanish from north america because the habitat wasn't able to provide them anymore, they were hunted out of north america, therefor reintroducing them to north america, will not put a strain on the habitat
Joe, you can never just make a nice, educational science video without some Family Guy-esque segway into the weirdest shit I've ever seen 😂
I will accept this compliment. 😄
I know it takes more time, but I love the cinematic stuff!! Really appreciate!!!
I’ve had people tell me that one of their biggest fears is having to run from someone on the toilet with their pants down around their ankles ….i had never really considered it myself, but it was funny Joe included that touch.
@@joescottas you should!
@@joescottMore of this stuff, my man. You've got a natural talent for acting. Most RUclipsrs who do these sorts of things don't and so they come across as only serving their ego.
Bringing back the Ivory-billed woodpecker seems like it should be easier than a dodo. But the Moa, and Haast’s Eagle would be pretty epic too.
I don’t think sheep ranchers and mothers of young children would want the Haast Eagle brought back.
@@sandrahurst4123 Their woes are irrelevant on the road to greatness. The weak children will be prey, but the strong children will learn to ride the eagles and form tribes which will terrorize countries and bring entire nations to their knees. Once they come of age and are no longer light enough to be carried on the backs of their steed, they will sacrifice themselves in battle by skydiving into enemy leaders with spears in each hand.
Sounds awesome:
"hey bros, let's bring back this dumb giant flightless bird".
"cool!"
"And then let's bring back this giant eagle to murder it!"
"Super cool!"
@@sandrahurst4123 Humans have been without natural predators for too long and have gotten arrogant. A little fear and caution is good for a species.
@@Crazyashley42 Arrogance is of sin. I truly hope you are joking with your comment. We were put on this earth to help one another make it back to the presence of God, but the wicked destroy the wicked, so i suppose sinful people are their own predators. Fear and caution is good if it leads to repentance. If not, there really is much to fear. The disastrous events happening in our day will increase over time until the Savior returns. Then we will live in peace with all people and races of good hearts and minds. Even the wooly mammoth, if brought back, will lie down in peace. There will be no fear because all will be alive with the knowledge of Christ and all He has done for the world. God is in control of everything and uses both the wicked and the righteous to bring about His purposes. Be a Peacemaker. Learn of Christ. Happiness will follow.
Thanks for another great vid! Hands down, the Tasmanian Tiger. But in doing so, we’d also need foxes and feral cats to be under control so the Tiger can be the top predator again. They’ve only been gone for a blip on the extinction radar, I mean we have them on film so hopefully it’s something they can do, I know there’s a lot of interest here in Oz.
You may have already done a video on 'Pleistocene Park', but a deeper look at why bringing large mastodons back to the steppe tundra, is potentially so important, (Potentially, very , very important.) would have been interesting. Great vid. Thank you.
FINALLY, someone who understands how to weave an ad into their video in an entertaining way with a perfect segway! Oh, and an entertaining presentation of interesting information. Ranks you right up with Kyle Hill (although YOUR segway was better).
I think dodos would be a great way to see weather bringing back a mammoth can be good idea, as dodos are a really recent species that died out and lived on a fairly small habitat like Mauritius, dodos would also be a great attempt at looking at the flaws of de extinction technology.
But where would they be reintroduced? Their only natural habitat now has an ecosystem full of predators, which is why they went extinct in the first place. Any other ecosystem lacking predators would be disrupted by the introduction of dodos.
@@reshpeck A significant number of historical sources talking about dodos mentioned how tasty and docile they were, that sounds like the perfect farm bird to me.
Good eating.
*whether
@@Nibleswick they were reportedly disgusting, and they weren't commonly eaten. They were driven extinct by pigs which rooted up their nests.
Well, animals created in labs would have legal protections and the corporation owning it could sue the people killing it and destroying their environment. But they'll probably going to try to charge you for seeing one in the wild too.
The Tarpits are definitely arguably more interesting than anything in Los Angeles. There is nothing older in the city than what's contained in that exhibit. It's one place you can visit where you'll look at something and it's hard to wrap your brain around how old are those bones -- which is merely Joe Scott standing next to the remains of a long extinct animal, you can ask him his age.
"10 years out till you see a wolly mammoth"
Me, who seen the wolly mammoth genetic engineering concern 15+ years ago and they also claimed they were gonna have a wolly mammoth in 5-10 years:
Joe, that was one of the best skits you've done and u managed to out due any ad performance, all in the same video!
i'd be down to watch a video where you talk about the bacterial infections becoming immune to modern antibiotics that you mentioned if you're looking for video ideas!
Lol that's a no from me, I've already surpassed my lifetime quota of being scared shitless
On a trip around California many years ago, friend and I stopped by the Tar Pits and found them so interesting! However, the lasting memory I have of them is that some small, black bird took it into its mind to attack me, at least three times. The little bugger wouldn't leave me alone! Despite that, the pits and what is found in them (and how the stuff is found) was wonderous. Love me some science!
I had a bat do that once. I tried to net it but couldn't. Then flipped the net to the handle and hit a home run killing the bat...
@@brandonhoffman4712touchdown! 😂
I hope I can visit that one day too
The Red Wing Black Bird is very territorial. . . I’ve been attacked more than once while cycling in the countryside. . .
Seeing that "Predator Joe" skit in the patreon stream was fantastic, seeing it in the actual Video was even better! Keep up the great work Joe and have a great 2024. Happy holidays!!!
I have a fun memory of the La Brea Tarpits in the late 1980s. I was visiting the LA area and driving down Wilshire Blvd. and came across it, and I had to go around a few blocks to make sure I was seeing it correctly, because it's so close to downtown LA! Of course Google Maps and the Internet weren't a thing for travelers back then. I felt like I had found a treasure trove of ancient history and over 35 years later, I remember that visit fondly.
Joe: You got this, Bro!
This is definitely your thing (talent) or i guess one of many.
Thank you for informing us in this cool format.
I'm a 51 year old man, and i watch these videos with my 12 yo son, and it's a great experience to learn new stuff together; Even though English is our 2nd language (we're from Mexico).
Please keep teaching us.
We appreciate it.
Peace!
El Charlie
Absolutely the best segue into a sponsor video ever. I'm actually going to look into it now, simply due to your performance effort.
Predator Clone is hilarious!
It (of course) would be a bit scary if it were real.
Using Predator Clone to segue into the Incogni commercial was pretty clever.
All Hail Zoe!
You freakin crack me up Joe, you really do.
I might be simple, but there is a cognitive sympathetic resonance there I am certain.
That means you are sick and sad and twisted, just like me.
In terms of extinctions, an additional 200 species was added just this year, to the list of 44,000 species in danger of extinction.
It was fun while it lasted.
I'm also sick, sad, and twisted. We should start a band! 😁
I made up this idea in my head a while ago where I thought about how hilarious it would be to hire a guy to just stalk and randomly attack you as you go about your day just to keep you sharp
Yes, loved the segue!
(back to watch this video for the Nth time just for the hilarity of the predator clone 😂😂😂😂😂)
Awesome segue into the Incogni ad and although I anticipated the ending it was still funny. The whole predator clone thing was pretty funny. If we do dextinctions, I would like to see them be things we more recently did in than the mammoth, like the dodo or the passenger pigeon. I think the climate has changed too much for something like the mammoth to be brought back.
That Predator Clone bit was hilarious. Awesome video!
This kind of program would be great for rhinos (especially the extinct Black Rhino). I would also LOVE to see the Caspian Tiger and Archaeoindris (giant lemur) come back. I don't think they would become invasive, and they would be cool to have back (in an appropriate habitat, of course).
Thanks for all the great videos this year Joe! Hope you had a good holiday spent with the family. Can't wait to see what you have in store next!
I just heard a podcast about the Doddo. They actually tasted terrible and weren't hunted for food. They went extinct, most likely from habitat loss.
No. The records clearly show, they went extinct from the introduction of multiple non-native species, including predators and that starving ships crews compounded the problem by eating quite a lot of them. The habitat is still largely intact but Dodo's could not return to Madagascar, because those same predators and other introduced species are still there.
Just because they weren’t tasty doesn’t mean they weren’t eaten, especially by stranded ship crew that are looking for quick and easy food sources when their food supplies ran out. It’s like they were the Carolina parakeets and poisonous to eat. You’ll eat anything once you’re desperate enough, even knowing that thing might kill you in the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if fugu was developed that way and eventually morphed into a delicacy for those with a death wish.
9:32 👏👏👏👍 Couldn't have said it better myself! We should be focusing on preventing more extinction.
Maybe We Should Focus On Stopping Climate Change First Since Preventing Extinction Would Be Pointless And Probably Be More Rapid Time Goes On.. Climate Is Getting Worse Every Year Sadly
I just listen to your videos while i work most of the time because i dont want to miss what you have to offer, but I can't just sit and watch them...... having said that, I was listening to this video while cutting something on my table saw, and that bit you did for your sponsor was the best thing I've "seen" all week! I would love to see what you could do with a full studio and a big production company behind you. Keep it up Joe you do an amazing job with these videos.
While it's true that sailors did eat dodo, the things that they wrote about doing so suggest that "delicious" is not a word they ever used to describe it. Many writings from the time describe them as unpleasant or foul tasting. The most flattering writings tend to describe them as bland and lacking in flavor. But when you're a sailor far from civilization in the times before refrigeration, you don't turn your nose up at fresh meat, even if it isn't especially good.
This might be the absolute BEST commercial for Incogni. Predator Clone is hilarious!
This comes hot on the heels of an Extra History video which calls into question a lot of what we have been told about the dodo bird. From the perspective of that video, I think we have even more reason to bring that species back.
Definitely! I bet that if they did bring back the dodo people would try and eat it and be disappointed.
@@mattsomeone610 Yes, they would eat the Dodo, and they would also cut the Mammoth's face off with a chainsaw to get the ivory, just like they already do with with elephants.
Even better; simply toxic flesh.
I can't see a reason to bring either back except science.
I think our efforts would be better spent trying to reseed our planet with existing life. Blue whales still haven't repopulated since whaling in the 1920's.
I see eagles reasonably often. They are making a comeback.
What I don't see is all of the insects. What the heck has been happening to most of the bugs? I can remember times, and it wasn't that long ago, when the air was filled with so many flying insects that I feared breathing them in. Now I go through whole summers where nothing remotely like that happens.
And speaking of the obvious, what has been happening to the turkey vultures (some people will probably confuse these with the eagles)? There are still a lot of them around, but in my region, I think the number of these birds is less than 10% of what it was just ten years ago.
And right up there with the insects is the bats. What has happened to the bats? Are most people so oblivious that they haven't noticed that the bats have almost disappeared?
I remember, on road trips, every time you refueled you had to scrape and wash your windshield. Are there still places where that's the case?
Still true here (Newfoundland, Canada).
I think it's important to note that Beth Shapiro is actually working for Colossal now. She's the head of the dodo project. But to answer your question, in addition to the ones Colossal is already trying to bring back, Doedicurus and Megalonyx would at least be cool if not beneficial. And, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see a live Smilodon or Titanis...
Joe, I think I have seen every video you have ever made, and I think that this side clip/sponsor part/sub plot/whatever is the very best one you have ever made. That was amazing and sooo very well done. Excellent job. 👍😀
(and that says a lot because you have had many good ones, and it also made me make my first comment ever on one of your videos 👍)
Merry Christmas Joe! You are a great source of information and laughter! BTW, I love how your butler clone isn't fazed by the psycho clone. 💕 Good girl zoe! ❤
I feel like, if they are relatively recently extinct & they still have a habitat, it'd be worth it. That would put a lot of the American extinct bird species in play- Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Ivory Billed Woodpecker, etc.
Two votes for the Carolina Parakeet. They were the only thing that eats Cockleburrs, and now we are over-run with Cockleburrs everywhere. So many Cockleburrs all over. It's nuts how one little bird can be so important.
Instinctive behavior is passed down by the mother's RNA, which would not exist in this case. Learned behavior is passed down by parents, which would not exist in this case. Cloned animals would have no idea how to interact with their environment and would likely be more a destructive element than a restorative one.
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj Do you have a source for the claim that instinct comes from the mothers RNA,? Because I've never heard that.
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj Nothing is passed down by RNA. While very early life probably encoded genetic information in RNA, that function has been subsumed by DNA except in the case of certain viruses.
It's almost a certainty that instinctive behavior is encoded in DNA because where else would it come from? But an organism, assuming it's a garden-variety diploid, receives half its DNA from each parent. Once the gametes fuse, the resulting zygote neither knows nor cares which parent provided which alleles. The only genetic information that comes solely from the mother is mitochondrial DNA, which is not used to code for proteins in the larger organism. (A 2018 study reported that humans appear to inherit mitochondrial DNA from both parents. This has been disputed.)
The big problem, as you pointed out, is learned behaviors. Can Asian elephants impart learning that will help their woolly mammoth offspring survive in the Arctic? Probably not. Of course, unless something miraculous happens really soon, there won't be an Arctic environment for the new mammoths to inhabit, so it's pretty much moot.
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj I think you make a good point. I wonder, though, in the case of Wooly Mammoth is the behavior of existing elephant herds close enough to introduce them into, until enough exist to form an exclusive wooly mammoth herd.
What will happen is rather than addressing the actual issues, people will continue to spin their wheels and end up using this technology to transform humans into bizarre constructs that can survive in the horrible conditions humanity continues to create.
I'm reminded of the controversial push to start farming rhinos.
it's currently illegal to farm rhinos for most (or any) reason. but the plan had been to breed them in captivity for food, leather, and yes: ivory. the plan would allow rhino populations to recover faster by using private lands and financial incentives, a portion of the increased population could be released into the wild to the extent that the wilds could support them. and farmed ivory would tank the price of ivory, effectively killing the illicit ivory trade, which, of course, starts with poaching.
on this topic, the recovered population of the more common rhino types would allow the recently-extinct varieties; for which we have complete dna samples and records; to be recovered as well, using the newly-common-rhinos to incubate and bare de-extinct calves. it would be like incubating a cloned embryo of a Bison/buffalo in a common cow...
Letting AI decide what parts of the genome to use is such a great idea that it'd be a great setting for the next Terminator movie.
Nothing that includes "... letting AI decide ..." is a good idea EVER xD
@@OroberusWe solved Protein Folding with AI so that is a lie.
Please stop, AI is just a Intelligence that is produced artificially, I hate everyone constantly say Skynet Skynet Skynet.
There are some plant life I'd like to see come back. I can't think of anything in particular, but I know there is a tree that is the last of its kind.
Ah yes, so many flower species missing from the UK, and it's been decades since I've seen a Camberwell Beauty butterfly.
On reflection, I think it probably is better to start with the most recent losses and work backwards, since I remember an article by the World Wide Fund For Nature that claimed every time a species went extinct, an 'average' of 50 other interconnected species die with it.
Therefore, it would make sense to help the present day species that are ailing as a result of species, now extinct, that depended on them in some way.
Work backwards through the timeline of extinctions and get others off the Red Data list, and we can improve environments 'in readiness' for those species we aim to bring back next.
Choosing species like Woolly Mammoths - for whatever reason than they're big and impressive - may not work because the plants are not there, because the bugs that pollinated them are not there, because the dung of the prehistoric predators the aforementioned bugs lay their eggs in aren't there. In this respect, choosing a Woolly Mammoth to restore might result in a slow, sad re-extinction for that animal.
I think we humans ought to do less than what's really impressive, and do what is thought out sensibly to support the target creatures scientists want to bring back.
A famous one i know of is the plant the romans made extinct because it prevented pregnancy
Maybe being back the Thylacine, maybe it's presence might help protect the ancient forests of Tasmania.
Which is easier to bring back: the thylacine, or the Tasmanian languages?
Loved the predator clone skit
Fascinating video! And brilliant transition to the commercial!
Excellent pronunciation of Przewalskis. Two thumbs up! 🇵🇱
I like how the CEO of Colossal Bio stated that they want to bring back keystone species in order to strengthen biodiversity. The mammoth, Dodo, and Tasmanian cat are not keystone species.
The Tasmanian Tiger is a Thylacine not a cat. It also went extinct due to human interference. The Tasmanian Devil has also suffered significant population reduction due to human activities and diseases.
@rosebrent9440 ok, I understand that. It is still not a keystone species. Now, bringing back the Passanger Pigeon, which is actually a keystone species. Having it back in a large enough, breeding population, that can actually support itself. That would absolutely destroy our current farms 😆
The Tasmanian Tiger was in fact a keystone species. A primary predator of Australia alongside dingoes. I think they would be the most advantageous out of the Wooly Mammoth and Dodo bird since they used to play an important role in Tasmania’s ecosystem. Additionally Tasmania is also a very isolated region from the world with some of the most beautiful and well preserved environments making it an easy environment to re introduce the Tasmanian tiger, if it is extinct 👀.
@kazpaapzak8637 You kind of made your own point mute by saying that the Tasmanian tiger was a predator alongside the dingos, so there was a species already there to take the place of the Tigers. If you're going to make an ecological argument, you might get away with the Dodo being gone, reducing the fertility of the soil on the islands where it was found.
Which is a light point, except the dingo has never existed in Tasmania. @@davidmclay6182
Sorry mate, reports from the time say they tasted disgusting & not delicious. Dodo eggs were predominantly eaten by rats & pig brought to the island by sailors.
I had to Google this and you're totally right. Apparently they weren't very good, with reports being that the meat was tough. Obviously didn't stop them from eating them anyways. What a shame.
I think Predator Joe needs to be the new host. He seems personable and I like that.
He could at least do the next Halloween episode, right?
Predator Clone is my new fav sketch! 🤣🤣Merry Xmas Joe!
Happy New Year Joe and Zoe!
See... the dodo story always gets to me.
Because the received wisdom is that the dodo was tasty AF. Nowadays, rumour has it that the tapir is also pretty good eating, however its also endangered. So Im like... ofc I shouldnt eat it, because its endangered. But on the other hand, what if it goes extinct and I never got to taste one, maybe I should chow down while Ive got the chance?
Im really conflicted, and I just love tasty things.
Interestingly, some animals have been saved because they were tasty. Red wattle hogs, for instance, were bred back into widespread existence because of several factors - one being their meat.
Welcome to bring human
@@nod4eight945 Well the reason for that is probably because there was a full human population to turn it into livestock, while the colonists that found the Dodo's probably didn't have the equipment, people, or maybe even knowhow on how to turn them into livestock.
The hallucigenia Sparsa would be a species i would like to see brought back. It’s a fascinating little creature!
We already brought them back. They're called Trump supporters. They don't know which way is up. L O L
That is one freaky looking critter! I'd never heard of it, so thanks for mentioning it. But I think I'd want it to go extinct again soon after it was brought back! lol
It is an interesting concept, and one I've been thinking of a lot lately. Animals in zoos that have never been shown how to act, have the genes from their species. Could be the same with people. Different nationalities have stereotypes, which could be from their family hereditary over generations and generations of genes.
We love you too Joe. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year my friend.
Colossal company picture look like a metal band first debut album. 8:05
"Scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
Here is one of my concerns , although scientists like to laugh at crazy religious people, they are just as susceptible to short sightedness and magical thinking. I loved the quote you included about best intentions. I've always liked your videos, they are getting better and better
Bring back the Dodo birds! I hear they were delicious.
@Dr.Kay_R delicious pigeons
5:39 I know it's not in the spirit of this video, but look at that wood butchering machine. Man, that's efficient.
Forget mammoths, bring ChatGPT to life.
Every other youtuber: i know this is a sensitive topic, please be civil in tthe comments.
Joe: i wanna see some real fights!
Hi Joe I would just like to thank you in 2019 I came down with pancreatic cancer found your Chanel and been watching ever since when I watch you now it takes me back to a bad time that you made bearable Thank you 👍
Be selfish > Reintroduce Passenger Pigeons > Roast chestnuts! Once upon a time, these flocks ‘dropped’ so much guano that the American Chestnut wasn’t even phased by the blight that’s currently killing them all. Wild Pigeon = also tasty!
merry christmas joe! i hope you and your wife had a good one
The monsters under the bed concept isn’t that far fetched. Anthropologists studying monkeys have recognized that essentially all monkeys are innately afraid of snakes (as are some people). It is hypothesized that this fear is a genetic left over from the days where all primates lived in trees, a lifestyle that brought them into direct contact with snakes. The guys/gals that were fast enough to live ‘to tell’ about their encounters lived, the others… well, they didn’t. We too may have a genetic memory of the days when a bump in the night was something not to be ignored.
super impressed with you rolling your running gag into your sponsorship. I don't need incogni right now but if I did, I would just for that! what doing that did (if you're looking for feedback) is make me watch the whole ad instead of skipping ahead once I heard who sponsored the video.
Not only is this channel AWESOME interesting and fun, but even the commercials are worth watching 😄
In my experience, after taking a cruise for the first and only time, I learned that nearly the entire crew was from the Philippines. I asked other people I know of that have gone on cruises, and they had similar observations, but their crew was Malaysian. I don't think it would take much research to expose the bad conditions and labor demands that are required of the crew. They are likely severely underpaid as well. I theorize that when you add those circumstances to an emergency situation it would be unreasonable to expect the crew to go above and beyond to help passengers. It would be like expecting the 3rd class passengers to help load all of the 1st and 2nd class passengers before themselves. Not what they signed up for and not nearly enough compensation. The captain has zero excuse, and neither do the cruise lines for their deplorable labor practices.
4:57 is that a slice of tomato he's hydrating?
Finally, a commercial I watched all the way through! Good luck, Joe. I think you'll need it!
Merry Christmas Joe
I think the Dodo and the Thylacine are important projects. The mammoth? Not so much. There are plenty of other species that have disappeared more recently that should be the focus of those efforts.
I suppose this is a good idea in the big picture sense, like for example we're probably going to need a lot more beasts of burden when we finally deplete all of our oil, lithium, cobalt, etc etc etc...Oh well, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of us evolutionary survivors and the critters we manage to jump start in the near future :)
Okay, seriously, great job on the sponsor skit. Got me to watch the whole thing!
Imagine having a bank of all the genomes of all the extinct species on earth and knowing where they fit into their environments so that five hundred years from now we can just factory reset whole environments back up and running
I would like to see the Steller's sea cow brought back. The idea of a big manatee like animal swimming about in the Arctic Ocean would have its charms.
@ 4:45 I thought you said this was the "6th grade" extinction. As it seems very few people seem to be smarter than a 5th grader these days, it would be an apt name.
I'm legit glad I discovered this channel. Even more so that is someone from my own backyard in the DFW area! Keep up the great work Joe!
"If the big scary animals didn't want to go extinct, they shouldn't have tasted great and had an allergy to sharp sticks" -ancient humans
This is my favorite episode! Merry Christmas.
The Predator Clone was priceless.
Been absent from the channel for a while. I miss the chair spin at the beginning, but I am glad that the intro remains the same.
I was able to take my students on a field tip to tour and meet scientists from Colossal here in Dallas a couple weeks ago. Their facility is amazing and Nick from the scientist group was a rockstar with me and my students. You should have visited them for this video.
What's to stop people from just driving them into extinction again though? I live in the Netherlands and my country is a hellscape because the governement, farmers and companies have chosen money over nature every single time.
The transition to the ad read was ingenious!!!
Man, that segue to the Incogni promotion was the stuff of legends. 😄👏🏽
I find it rather disconcerting that when talking about bringing back extinct species, there's so much focus on woolly mammoths. What about the dozens of small species, little marsupials and mammals, fish, crustaceans, frogs, birds, lizards, snakes, insects, worms, other invertebrates, corals? What's the point of bringing back a woolly mammoth which had evolved to live in cold areas, when the planet is heating up at a rate faster than it has ever done before (maybe excluding super-volcano eruption and large asteroid impact type scenarios) and we're not only at a loss to stop it, but fossil fools are perpetually adding to the problem and praying that some future technology that doesn't exist yet will fix it. Let the mammoths RIP. Save a cassowary, or some other key species that's seriously under threat.
This is always the case when it comes to anything animal. Whether it’s de-extinction, to which endangered species the money goes and even with animal rights activism. Charismatic animals always get the most. You always hear about saving the panda for example. And most animal rights activists get raging mad when they hear about culling feral cats, even though it’s the world’s worst invasive species that’s threatening literal hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians with extinction and caused lots to go extinct already like the Dodo (with the help of rats, pigs and some monkeys IIRC macaques) Even if they’re merely sterilized and released as they demand, it will just keep on killing many animals every day. They’re also near impossible to catch alive, handle and to make sure none keeps eluding.
Merry Christmas, and a great video
You made a cliffhanger into an ad! Well done, and predator clone bit looks like the stuff you have fun doing, you’re great at it btw.
Happy Holidays Joe and crew🤗
Thank you all for the amazing content! To quote the legend himself "have a a safe and happy new year love ya guys and take care"