44 replies to this topic

[Alexcremers]

Lonesome George, the world's last remaining Pinta Island tortoise, has died at age 100 -- marking the end of a species millennia in the making ...



http://www.treehugge...ome-george.html

[Chaac]

At least they should record all its ADN.

[Wojo]

Wonder if he tastes like chicken.

[KK.]

Tragic. But as Chaac said, they should record his DNA and store into a gene bank of some sort.

[indy4]

Wow, what a fantastic creature. RIP.

[Williamsfan301]

Wow. That's gonna be alot of turtle soup.

[Koray Savas]

Didn't realize there was only one remaining animal of any species. That's pretty much just a ticking clock waiting to strike 12, ain't it? Unless they could clone a female for the old dude.

[indy4]

Well it says they were trying to breed it with similar species to keep its genes in the gene pool, but it didn't work.

[Williamsfan301]

"..life, ah...ah...ah...finds a way."

[Wojo]

Unless they could clone a female for the old dude.

That's the thing: how? From himself? If that's even possible, the progeny could be genetically weak because they would be his DNA. If they crossed his genes with other tortoises, they would risk being sterile hybrids, like male mules.

I would hope that if the 100 year old tortoise still had any swimmers after all that time, they would have frozen them years ago for the day when someone finds that the large rock in their Galapagos flower bed is really the last female of this guy's species, playing dead all this time to avoid his lusty gaze...

[Alexcremers]

"..life, ah...ah...ah...finds a way."

Kinda funny you should post this because isn't George like a dinosaur?

[BloodBoal]

Well, somehow, George was the last dinosaur. Or was it Denver?

[Alexcremers]

George isn't the last dinosaur. Sharks are still around and they haven't changed in millions of years.

[Wojo]

Wow. Foreign educational systems must really be dumbing down science if we're calling turtles and sharks dinosaurs.

Cockroaches are really old and unchanging, too, but I don't think DINOSAUR each time I step on one.

Oh, you know what's even older than all of them? Bacteria. I blew my nose five minutes ago, it was full of yellow and green DINOSAURS!!!!!

[Alexcremers]

Actually, Jaws is the prequel to Jurassic Park.

[BloodBoal]

Wow. Foreign educational systems must really be dumbing down science if we're calling turtles and sharks dinosaurs.

Says the man who lives in a country where pizzas are considered to be a vegetable

[KK.]

Unless they could clone a female for the old dude.

That's the thing: how? From himself? If that's even possible, the progeny could be genetically weak because they would be his DNA. If they crossed his genes with other tortoises, they would risk being sterile hybrids, like male mules.

I would hope that if the 100 year old tortoise still had any swimmers after all that time, they would have frozen them years ago for the day when someone finds that the large rock in their Galapagos flower bed is really the last female of this guy's species, playing dead all this time to avoid his lusty gaze...

Haha! That's what I said. Hopefully the did freeze some of his sperm and store it in a gene bank.

[Marian Schedenig]

That's the thing: how? From himself? If that's even possible, the progeny could be genetically weak because they would be his DNA. If they crossed his genes with other tortoises, they would risk being sterile hybrids, like male mules.

Genetically weak would have been better than genetically extinct, no? And I guess it depends on the gene mix and dominance. In the end, we're all from the same gene pool, it's too long lines of strict interbreeding that amplifies defects.

[Chaac]

My idea was exact clones of the last individual.

[Wojo]

Wow. Foreign educational systems must really be dumbing down science if we're calling turtles and sharks dinosaurs.

Says the man who lives in a country where pizzas are considered to be a vegetable

Congress never stated that pizza is a vegetable. They ruled that a 1/8 cup of tomato paste has the same nutrients as a 1/2 cup serving of vegetables, which frozen food lobbyists want to use to justify keeping pizza on schoolchildren's lunches as an acceptable substitute for more traditional vegetables. This idea ignores the fact that pizza has high amounts of fat and salt, which aren't good for kids to eat all the time.

It's the same kind of advertising that sloppy joe and ravioli commercials use to promote their products as having a full or partial portion of vegetables. Yea, sure, ok, you can get your calcium from ice cream, but at what cost?

[Williamsfan301]

Unless they could clone a female for the old dude.

That's the thing: how? From himself? If that's even possible, the progeny could be genetically weak because they would be his DNA. If they crossed his genes with other tortoises, they would risk being sterile hybrids, like male mules.

"Amphibian DNA..."

[Wojo]

That...Was...A...MOVIE!!!

[Chaac]

<excessive simplification>

They have an entire genoma in the turtle itself, they have to copy it and inject it into an ovum and see if it can grow in a closely related female. If not, we have to wait until we can simulate eggs artificially.

</excessive simplification>

[Williamsfan301]

<excessive simplification>

They have an entire genoma in the turtle itself, they have to copy it and inject it into an ovum and see if it can grow in a closely related female. If not, we have to wait until we can simulate eggs artificially.

</excessive simplification>

"Can't we see the unfertilized eggs?!"

[Luke Skywalker]

Um its sad, but really the whole internet (facebook specially) is full of messages saying how bad us humans are for making this species exticnt.

As if george had been assasinated. I'm sure he was one of the most cared animals in the world.

And i think this is 'just' a particular subspecies of tortoise. It seems near each Galapagos Island has/had its subspecies of tortoise. It's not like there are not giant tortoises anymore.

I feel sad for the loss of species as the next guy, but sometimes this sensationalist 'news' and 'every human is a demon against nature' gets on my nerves. Like then they said the black rhinoceros was extinct. They just forgot to mention it was an subpecies. I read people already crying and calling people names. And there are still arround 4000 out there.

[Chaac]

Luke, when the variety of rhinoceros has been reduced so much since the Pleistocene (well, the variety of many mammal groups even including us) I think the loss of a subespecies is relevant.

[indy4]

Um its sad, but really the whole internet (facebook specially) is full of messages saying how bad us humans are for making this species exticnt.

As if george had been assasinated. I'm sure he was one of the most cared animals in the world.

And i think this is 'just' a particular subspecies of tortoise. It seems near each Galapagos Island has/had its subspecies of tortoise. It's not like there are not giant tortoises anymore.

I feel sad for the loss of species as the next guy, but sometimes this sensationalist 'news' and 'every human is a demon against nature' gets on my nerves. Like then they said the black rhinoceros was extinct. They just forgot to mention it was an subpecies. I read people already crying and calling people names. And there are still arround 4000 out there.

Luke...the article itself says that humankind is the reason this species is extinct:

Not long after scientific expedition first began to flock to the Galapagos to study its untarnished ecosystems, life on the islands would never be the same. On the island of Pinta, goats introduced by settlers devoured so much vegetation that its unique subspecies of tortoise was all but wiped out.

[chuckster312]

So long, Master Oogway.

[Luke Skywalker]

Um its sad, but really the whole internet (facebook specially) is full of messages saying how bad us humans are for making this species exticnt.

As if george had been assasinated. I'm sure he was one of the most cared animals in the world.

And i think this is 'just' a particular subspecies of tortoise. It seems near each Galapagos Island has/had its subspecies of tortoise. It's not like there are not giant tortoises anymore.

I feel sad for the loss of species as the next guy, but sometimes this sensationalist 'news' and 'every human is a demon against nature' gets on my nerves. Like then they said the black rhinoceros was extinct. They just forgot to mention it was an subpecies. I read people already crying and calling people names. And there are still arround 4000 out there.

Luke...the article itself says that humankind is the reason this species is extinct:

Not long after scientific expedition first began to flock to the Galapagos to study its untarnished ecosystems, life on the islands would never be the same. On the island of Pinta, goats introduced by settlers devoured so much vegetation that its unique subspecies of tortoise was all but wiped out.

Being literal...It was the goats' fault.

I mean this species has not been hunted to extiction, and when they noticed they made every effort to protect it.

There are many other better examples to use if you want to change people's minds about conservationism


Dont get me wrong (Chaac too). It's tragic any species or subspecies becomes extict (as long as it is not a natural event). I was just expressing my discontent with this false way of giving information, that people, since they dont check the true events, believe it wholeheartedly out of good faith.

[Williamsfan301]

I'm liking you more and more, Luke. Not that I want to pick out curtains, though...

[king mark]

Well at the rate forests and natural habitats are being destroyed, many species are going to become extinct soon

[Wojo]

Being literal...It was the goats' fault.

I mean this species has not been hunted to extiction, and when they noticed they made every effort to protect it.

There are many other better examples to use if you want to change people's minds about conservationism

Dont get me wrong (Chaac too). It's tragic any species or subspecies becomes extict (as long as it is not a natural event). I was just expressing my discontent with this false way of giving information, that people, since they dont check the true events, believe it wholeheartedly out of good faith.

Smiley face notwithstanding, blaming the goats for killing the giant tortoise is like putting the bullet on trial in a murder case.

[Luke Skywalker]

I'm liking you more and more, Luke. Not that I want to pick out curtains, though...

is this sarcasm or not?

Because i dont think i'm saying something preposterous.

Sometimes the press is sensationalistic and creates false notions of the reality im just pointing that.

Lonesome george was the last of his subspecies. There are thousands (more than 19000 estimated) of Galapagos Giant tortosies still in the world. It is still a low number compared to the supposed over 200000 individuals a few centuries ago, but far, VERY far from 'Extinct'.

It's more hearbreaking what the americans did with the Passenger pigeon. Now there you have an outrageous fact.

[Chaac]

[Wojo]

A) Everyone responsible for killing the passenger pigeons is dead.
B) Pigeons are city chicken -- a dime a dozen.
C) They were America's to do with as we wanted. As I recall, the Spanish pretty much hunted the Aztec and Inca into extinction, too.

[Joey]

Pigeon's are rats with wings.

[Chaac]

C) They were America's to do with as we wanted.

No.

As I recall, the Spanish pretty much hunted the Aztec and Inca into extinction, too.

No, that's more or less what was done north of Mexico. At the south a lot of people survived and kept speaking their languages, and mixed with the europeans. They were only conquered because they fought among themselves and some factions prefered to ally with the sufficiently advanced Spaniards. Otherwise the conquest with so few men in conditions so poor would have been much more difficult. The difference with the story north of Mexico was that the intention was to obtain riches and the christianization of the population, that was recognized as inhabitants of the king's lands. North of Mexico, the long term effect was the replacement of the original population with an anglosaxon population, with a free half a continent to expand. This is all of course very simplified. I read it in the notes of a friend who studies history at college. He had like 300 pages of it, I skimmed through half of it.

Besides, all the responsible are dead too

Lastly, I don't think Luke's intent was to introduce people in this.

We might just talk about animals.

[Luke Skywalker]

Passenger pigeons were wild animals that lived in the fields and a different species and completely unrelated with the European Rock dove whom the citie's Feral pigeon descends from.

There are thousand's of Pigeon species and there are only a handful of them that are 'winged rats'. I can remember Feral pigeon, Collared dove and laughing dove.

[Williamsfan301]

I'm liking you more and more, Luke. Not that I want to pick out curtains, though...

is this sarcasm or not?

Definitely not sarcasm

[king mark]

Dodo birds must have been pretty tasty if they wiped them out in less than 100 years