genetics Archives - EcoEvo@TCD

Using genetics to understand ecology is fascinating. The data reveal things that often cannot be found by observation alone, such as patterns of cryptic diversity, migration pathways and the source of colonising populations.

But life in ecological genetics research is peculiar because we sit on a border between two fairly different fields of science. In an ecological crowd we’re called the ‘genetics person’ while among geneticists we’re seen to have only a rudimentary knowledge of ‘real’ genetics and our comments on ecological theory are sometimes met with funny looks. So spending time in an ecological genetics crowd is refreshing and, last week, about 30 members of the British Ecological Society did exactly that. Continue reading “EGG heads talk ecological genetics in Dublin”

While most of the younger generations are familiar with the ideas behind Jurassic Park, they are probably also aware that, despite the best efforts of geneticists, there is no possibility of conjuring up a T. Rex from the fossilised remnants that are on display in museums.

However, there are plans afoot to attempt a similarly ambitious project with species that have disappeared from the earth more recently. These reintroduction programmes, where there are currently no living relatives to repopulate the species, have been termed “de-extinction”. The Long Now Foundation (a private, not-for-profit organisation committed to very long-term thinking about the human population) has conceived a Revive and Restore Project that aims to return some of the planet’s missing biodiversity. Candidate species have already been identified and include; the Passenger Pigeon (US), the Great Auk (Europe), the Dodo (Mauritius),the Huia (New Zealand), the Tasmanian Tiger (Australia) and the Woolly Mammoth (Russia). Continue reading “Undead as a dodo?”