Ambystoma kansensis

[TheAmphibianGuy]

So I just saw that there was a Salamander called Ambystoma kansensis!?! How long ago did it go extinct. Is it even extinct because the reason I think it might be extinct is that the picture I saw was a fossil and also I cant find anything on the internet about it

 

[Otterwoman]

Lower Pliocene

https://books.google.com/books?id=c...I#v=onepage&q=Plioambystoma kansensis&f=false

 

[TheAmphibianGuy]

Since its from that time It might barely be possible to extract the DNA or map the genome to eventually clone It

 

[JM29]

It may be too old to sequence DNA from A. kansensis now.
Pliocene ends 2 millions years ago.
The most ancient DNA succesfully sequenced was only 500 000 to 700 000 years old.

But with the progress of technics, who knows?

 

[schmiggle]

While cloning will probably be impossible, DNA has been successfully extracted from Tyrannosaurus fossils; however, this was (if I remember right) around 250 base pairs. DNA is simply not stable enough to last very long, since if it was, it would be impossible for cells to make proteins.

 

[JM29]

Unfortunately, the success of DNA extraction and sequencing lowers with times :
http://www.livescience.com/37247-dna.html
http://www.livescience.com/41537-t-rex-soft-tissue.html
"They've even found chemicals consistent with being DNA though Schweitzer is quick to note that she hasn't proven they really are DNA"

http://www.nature.com/news/dna-has-a-521-year-half-life-1.11555
"even in a bone at an ideal preservation temperature of −5 ºC, effectively every bond would be destroyed after a maximum of 6.8 million years. The DNA would cease to be readable much earlier - perhaps after roughly 1.5 million years."

All the experiments were done with big bones of big animals (inluding NZ Moas ans T-rex). Our salamanders' bones are much thiner.

I didn't manage to find articles more recent than october 2013. If you know of some, I'm curious.

 

[FrogEyes]

Tyrannosaurus was a massive animal, and the preservation of DNA resulted from the thick bone being able to mineralize while leaving portions of the interior unchanged [and sealed in]. Ambystoma bones are tiny and likely provide no such protection. A.kansensis is believed to be a neotenic member of the A.mexicanum complex [which includes modern Kansas A.mavortium], and is one of several fossil "tiger" salamanders from Kansas.

 

[TheAmphibianGuy]

I heard that you could sequence the genomes of animals fossils by looking at the things left by DNA that has decayed to figure out what its genes were so maybe we could do that and with technology in the near future we could build the genes (Some people rebuilt the genes of a basic bacteria in the last year using e-coli and yeast cells as things to assemble the genome) and put them in an tiger salamander (or another species else in the genus ambystoma) egg and hatch it and find more fossils and do the same to those (if we find more fossils of them) an then attempt to breed them.