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| Cloning A Neanderthal |
George Church from Harvard University sparked controversy when in a Der Spiegel interview when he suggested the possibility of bringing Neanderthals back from extinction. In fact, controversy is probably too subtle of a term. An academic brawl would more closely describe what happened when Church posed the idea that an “extremely adventurous female” might offer herself to be a surrogate mother for a cloned Neanderthal baby, thus bringing Neanderthals back into existence. This has raised a lot of questions about whether or not bringing an extinct organism back into existence is even scientifically possible.
Is Scientific Research Ready?
I don’t have my doctorate in genetics or anything but I’m pretty sure this sounds like an odd thing to suggest and I’m not sure that the genetic and medical research that has been done is ready to support such an endeavor. A large argument for the possibility of it happening is that the Neanderthal genome has already been sequenced. The Neanderthal genome indicates that approximately 1-4% of modern day Eurasians DNA is comprised of Neanderthal DNA. This would mean that anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals would have cross bred, at least on occasion.
Is it really possible to construct an organism from fossil DNA? Most genetic scientists would say not. DNA degradation and contamination are extremely important factors when looking at creating an organism, especially one that has been extinct for roughly 30,000 years.
I’m sure that most biology or genetic students will tell you that using fossil DNA to reconstruct a species is impossible at this point in time. Keep in mind that the Neanderthal genome was mapped using fossil DNA. DNA degrades overtime changing some DNA bases to others which could be fatal to any organism. Plus, DNA occurs on chromosomes which we currently don’t have the ability to construct from fossil DNA.
Carrying a Neanderthal
Let’s say that creating an organism from fossil DNA is indeed possible. Would a human female actually be able to give birth to a Neanderthal without serious life threatening complications? Fossil analysis indicates that there are some distinct morphological differences between Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Human anatomy. There is no conclusive research to determine the gestational growth rate of Neanderthals. It seems as though the gracile human female form would have trouble just keeping up with the growth rate of a robust Neanderthal let alone actually giving birth to it. The overall makeup of a Neanderthal skull is much larger and robust than that of an Anatomically Modern Human bringing into question whether or not it’s even possible for an Anatomically Modern Human to give birth to a Neanderthal.
To many, this seems like an extremely outrageous claim but to be fair, Church did come back and say that when he made these comments he was merely speculating and wasn’t about to put out an add looking for such a person. Despite his intentions, are these the short of discussions that should be happening in the scientific community? There are obviously a lot more pressing medical and environmental needs that scientific advancement should be used to address which leaves many wondering about the ethical integrity of such an endeavor.
Author Bio: Jessica Reynolds loves all aspects of science, especially anthropology and archaeology. After obtaining a degree in anthropology she decided to give up her trowel in favor of pursing writing. She makes a living by writing, currently for scientific poster printer postersession.com, a division of MegaPrint.