Bizarre extinct frog brought back to life


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Imagine a frog that can swallow its eggs, brood its young in its stomach and give birth through its mouth.

The gastric brooding frog existed 30 years ago, but the extraordinary amphibian is now extinct.

In a world first, a team of Australian scientists has taken the first major step in bringing it back to life.

They have successfully reactivated its DNA and produced an embryo.

Professor Mike Archer from the University of New South Wales is part of the team, which also includes researchers from the University of Newcastle.

He says the amphibian was no ordinary frog.

"In the stomach these eggs went on to develop into tadpoles and the tadpoles then went on to develop into little frogs," he told ABC radio's AM program.

"And like any pregnant mum, when you have little babies rattling away in your stomach saying, 'let me out', she would then open her mouth and out would pop little frogs.

"The first people that saw that were aghast. By the time anybody got excited about it, suddenly it was extinct.

"So that's certainly one of the driving reasons why this would be a focal animal for seeing if we can de-extinct this amazing frog."

(...)

Source: http://m.abc.net.au/browse?page=11144&articleid=4575916
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FYI, high on the list for a resurrection are the mammoths, dodos and saber toothed cats. Since N. Carolina State scientists and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) have found T-Rex cells, and possibly DNA, in fossils you can't write them off either.

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I always wondered about the likes of those large animals, if they survived on vegetation they must have eaten literally tens of tons each per day.

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Last estimate I saw for a 30 - 40 ton apatasaur was 1-2 tons a day. The very large vegetarians retained heat better than the smaller predators due to a small surface area to volume ratio (aka: gigantothermy) and moved much slower, so they had lower metabolisms.

Even elephants have a problem with retained heat, more so be ause they're more warm blooded, so they use their ears as radiators and frequently spray themselves with water.

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Its dead for a reason, leave it be.

The reason appears to be so we can bring it back from extinction. You act as if Humans are not just another part of Mother Nature.

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"Doctors borrowed some DNA segments from Yersinia pestis to complete the sequences. When asked if the use of this DNA could cause issues with mutation the doctors answered... 'No there could absolutely be no issue in that reg * AAAACK * NOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

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FYI, high on the list for a resurrection are the mammoths, dodos and saber toothed cats. Since N. Carolina State scientists and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) have found T-Rex cells, and possibly DNA, in fossils you can't write them off either.

I want a T-rex :( il call him fluffy ! i promise il walk and feed him every day I promise... can i can i can i

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I want a T-rex :( il call him fluffy ! i promise il walk and feed him every day I promise... can i can i can i

You'd better scoop up his volkswagon-beetle-sized poop ! :s

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