Herps in the News

http://www.weather.com/news/science/frog-mouth-birth-20130318

Extinction Frog That Gives Birth Through Mouth...Alive Again?

The Article is based on Gastric-brooding frogs which became extinct in the 1980's. This frog gave birth through its mouth, which we learned about in class, when dealing with the different types of Amphibian parental care. However, Researchers of South Wales are trying to bring this frog back to life through cloning. They are taking a related frog, that lives in Queens Land Australia (which the extinct gastric-brooding frog use to live) and replacing its eggs with the gastric-brooding frogs preserved eggs. The eggs divide into embryo stages but didn’t survive past the embryo stage. The researchers believe they will soon be able to breed gastric-brooding frogs to adult hood.

            Rheobatrachus vitellinus is the extinct frog being used. The values of this experiment can be very argumentative. One hand you can bring back an extinct organism, which could potentially hold key phylogenetic and conservation information. On the other hand because the environment has adapted to live without this organism introducing could be the same as a foreign introduced species. This could cause a conservation problem like the cane toad in Australia. If would could somehow clone dinosaurs, I would be against it. Is it possible to pick and choose extinct organisms to clone? What should be the guidelines when dealing with a possible clone organism?  This article was on a very interesting topic and brings up moral responsibility and values to surface. I leave the reader with the question, Should scientist have the goal of advancements in all areas of knowledge or the advancement for survival of human society as a whole?