Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Dolly

Dolly (July 5, 1996 – February 14, 2003), a female sheep or ewe, was the first animal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her birth was announced on February 22, 1997 and she lived until the age of six.

The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone therefore proved that a cell taken from a specific body part could recreate a whole individual. More specifically, the production of Dolly showed that mature differentiated somatic cells in an adult animal's body could under some circumstances revert back to an undifferentiated pluripotent form and then develop into any part of an animal. As Dolly was cloned from part of a mammary gland, she was named after the famously curvaceous country western singer Dolly Parton.

Dolly lived for her entire life at the Roslin Institute. There she was bred with a Welsh Mountain ram and produced six lambs in total. Her first lamb called Bonny, was born in the spring of 1998. The next year Dolly produced twin lambs, and she gave birth to triplets in the year after that. In the autumn of 2001, at the age of five, Dolly developed arthritis and began to walk stiffly, but this was successfully treated with anti-inflammatory drugs.

On February 14, 2003, Dolly was euthanised because of a progressive lung disease. A Finn Dorset such as Dolly has a life expectancy of around 12 to 15 years, but Dolly lived to be only six years of age. An autopsy showed she had a form of lung cancer called Jaagsiekte that is a fairly common disease of sheep and is caused by the retrovirus JSRV. Roslin scientists stated that they did not think there was a connection with Dolly's being a clone, and that other sheep in the same flock had died of the same disease. Such lung diseases are a particular danger for sheep kept indoors, and Dolly had to sleep inside for security reasons.

However, some believe a contributing factor to Dolly's death was that she could have been born with a genetic age of six years, the same age the sheep from which she was cloned. One basis for this idea was the finding that Dolly's telomeres were short, which typically is a result of the aging process. However, the Roslin Institute have stated that intensive health screening did not reveal any abnormalities in Dolly that could have come from advanced aging.

After cloning was successfully demonstrated by Dolly's creators, many other large mammals have been cloned, including horses and bulls. Cloning is now considered a promising tool for preserving endangered species and may be important in the future production of transgenic livestock. Most animal conservation professionals point out that cloning does not alleviate the problems of loss of genetic diversity (see inbreeding) and habitat, and so must be considered an experimental technology for the time being, and all in all would only rarely be worth the cost, which on a per-individual basis far exceeds conventional techniques such as captive breeding or embryo transfer. The attempt to clone argali sheep did not produce viable embryos. The attempt to clone a banteng bull was more successful, as were the attempts to clone mouflon, both resulting in viable offspring. The banteng example is a case illustrating the circumstances under which the uncertainties of cloning attempts are outweighed by the benefits.

Copy Cat

CC for "Carbon Copy" or "Copy Cat" (born December 22, 2001), is a brown tabby and white domestic shorthair and the first cloned pet. CC's surrogate mother was a tabby, but her genetic donor, Rainbow, was a calico domestic shorthair. The difference in hair coloration between CC and Rainbow is due to X-inactivation. The embryo that became CC was the only one of 87 embryos produced in this research project that developed into a full-term pregnancy after being transferred to surrogate mothers.

The research project that produced CC was known as "Operation CopyCat," and was part of a larger project (called Missyplicity) to clone a dog named Missy. Entrepreneur John Sperling funded the research through his company Genetic Savings & Clone, which provided commercial gene banking and cloning services to pet owners and which closed in 2006.

CC was born at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University, under the direction of Dr. Mark Westhusin, in collaboration with Dr. Taeyoung Shin. Her existence was announced publicly in February 14, 2002, Valentine's Day, in conjunction with the publication by the scientific journal Nature of a paper about the accomplishment.

CC now lives in the household of Dr. Duane Kraemer, one of the scientists who worked on the project.

In September 2006, CC gave birth to three kittens who were fathered naturally. This is the first time a cloned pet has given birth. CC appears to be free of the cloning-related health problems that have arisen in some other animal clones. "CC has always been a perfectly normal cat and her kittens are just that way, too," says Kraemer. "We’ve been monitoring their health and all of them are fine, just like CC has been for the past five years."

Snuppy

Snuppy (born April 24, 2005) is the world's first cloned dog. This Afghan Hound clone was created by Hwang Woo-Suk and his team of scientists at Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea. The name "Snuppy" is a combination of "SNU" and "puppy."

The researchers transferred 1,095 dog embryos into 123 females, inducing three pregnancies. One fetus miscarried, and one clone died of pneumonia after three weeks. A Labrador Retriever carried the third embryo to term. The team announced their success in cloning in August of 2005.

Later in 2005 Hwang Woo-Suk was found to have fabricated evidence in stem cell research projects. This caused some to question the veracity of his other experiments, including Snuppy. In their investigation of Hwang Woo-Suk's publication, however, a team from SNU confirmed that Snuppy was a true clone of Tei, the DNA donor dog.

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park is a techno-thriller novel written by Michael Crichton that was published in 1990. Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uses the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an amusement park showcasing certain genetically recreated dinosaur species. It was adapted into a film in 1993.

Scientists have argued that much of the book's content is impossible for various reasons, most notably the suggested means of recovering dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes trapped in fossilized tree sap. While this theory is largely a plot device by Crichton, both novel and movie sparked debate on the feasibility of cloning dinosaurs.

Four arguments why it would not be possible to obtain dinosaurs with this process are summarized thus:

1. Dinosaur DNA would be very difficult to correctly sequence without a complete, intact DNA strand for comparison.
2. Any gaps in the resulting DNA sequence must be filled with dinosaur DNA; using frog DNA as the story suggests would likely produce an organism that varied from the original animal.
3. In order to clone a complete DNA sequence, an oocyte from the same organism is required. Since no dinosaurs are alive today, this would be impossible.
4. A dinosaur embryo would not be able to develop correctly without an egg from its own species.

Furthermore, it is likely that any prehistoric DNA obtained from a fossilized mosquito would be combined with the mosquito's own, again making it problematic to clone an 'accurate' and viable organism.

Ironically, most of the dinosaurs featured in the movie are not from the Jurassic period; they are actually from the Cretaceous period.

Use of DNA in Forensic Entomology

Humans are constantly fed on by haematophagous (blood feeding) insects. The ingested blood can be recovered and used to identify the person from which it was taken. Bite marks and reactions to bites can be used to place a person in an area where those insects are found.

DNA requires one hour to reach the abdomen of an insect, so DNA can be amplified one to forty-four hours after an insect feeds. Some research suggests that the source of a blood meal can be determined up to two months post feeding.

* Forensic Entomology

Pet Cloning

Pet cloning is the commercial cloning of a pet animal. The first commercially cloned pet was a cat named Little Nicky, produced in 2004 by Genetic Savings & Clone for a north Texas woman for the fee of US$50,000.

Science fiction depictions of cloning often create the impression that clones emerge full-grown from machines, are indistinguishable from their predecessors, and have even had their predecessors' minds "downloaded" into them. However, while an animal clone has the same genes as its genetic donor, behavior is influenced by environment and experience as well as by genetics. The behavior of an animal clone and its genetic donor will therefore be no more similar than the behavior of identical twins.

Some critics accuse pet cloning proponents of encouraging prospective pet cloning clients to falsely expect that their new pets will be indistinguishable from their old pets.

Commercial cloning has been decried by the Humane Society and some other animal welfare groups, which argue that it is unethical for people to obtain pets through commercial sources when so many homeless pets languish in shelters or live on the streets, and that the money spent on pet cloning would be better spent on the vaccination and care of those animals. Critics also argue that cloning attempts have high rates of failure, that animals involved in cloning research are likely to suffer, that clones may have serious health problems in later life, and that pet cloning is a slippery slope to human cloning.

Defenders of pet cloning argue that pet cloning does not contribute to pet homelessness, the animals involved are treated humanely, it makes people happy, there is a demand for it, it will contribute to scientific, veterinary, and medical knowledge, and it will help efforts to preserve endangered cousins of the cat and dog.

In 2005, California Assembly Member Lloyd Levine introduced a bill to ban the sale or transfer of pet clones in California. However, it was voted down.

GloFish

The GloFish is a trademarked brand of genetically modified (GM) fluorescent zebrafish with bright red, green, and orange fluorescent color. Although not originally developed for the ornamental fish trade, it is the first genetically modified animal to become publicly available as a pet.

The original zebrafish (Zebra danio) from which the GloFish was developed is a native of rivers in India and Bangladesh. It measures three centimetres long and has gold and dark blue stripes, and over 200 million have been sold in the last 50 years in the United States ornamental fish market. Despite the number of zebrafish sold, they have never established any reproducing populations in the United States, primarily because they are tropical fish, unable to survive in the temperate North American climate.

In 1999, Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues at the National University of Singapore extracted the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene from a jellyfish that naturally produced bright green bioluminescence. They inserted the gene into the zebrafish genome, causing the fish to glow brightly under both natural white light and ultraviolet light. Their goal was to develop a fish that could detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins. The development of the always fluorescing fish was the first step in this process. Shortly thereafter, his team developed a line of red fluorescent zebra fish by adding a gene from a sea coral, and yellow fluorescent zebra fish, by adding a variant of the jellyfish gene. Later, a team of Taiwanese researchers at the National University of Taiwan, headed by Professor Huai-Jen Tsai (蔡懷禎), succeeded in creating a medaka (rice fish) with a fluorescent green color.

Cloning Extinct and Endangered Species

Cloning, or more precisely, the reconstruction of functional DNA from extinct species has, for decades, been a dream of some scientists. The possible implications of this were dramatized in the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton and high budget Hollywood thriller Jurassic Park. In real life, one of the most anticipated targets for cloning was once the Woolly Mammoth, but attempts to extract DNA from frozen mammoths have been unsuccessful, though a joint Russo-Japanese team is currently working toward this goal.

In 2001, a cow named Bessie gave birth to a cloned Asian gaur, an endangered species, but the calf died after two days. In 2003, a banteng was successfully cloned, followed by three African wildcats from a thawed frozen embryo. These successes provided hope that similar techniques (using surrogate mothers of another species) might be used to clone extinct species. Anticipating this possibility, tissue samples from the last bucardo (Pyrenean Ibex) were frozen immediately after it died. Researchers are also considering cloning endangered species such as the giant panda, ocelot, and cheetah. The "Frozen Zoo" at the San Diego Zoo now stores frozen tissue from the world's rarest and most endangered species.

One of the continuing obstacles in the attempt to clone extinct species is the need for nearly perfect DNA. Cloning from a single specimen could not create a viable breeding population in sexually reproducing animals. Furthermore, even if males and females were to be cloned, the question would remain open whether they would be viable at all in the absence of parents that could teach or show them their natural behavior. Essentially, if cloning an extinct species were succeesful — it must be considered that cloning is still an experimental technology that succeeds only by chance. It is far more likely than not that any resulting animals, even if they were healthy, would be little more than curious or museum pieces.

Lyuba

Lyuba is a female mammoth calf which died ca 40,000 years ago at the age of six months. Discovered in May 2007 by reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi in Russia's Arctic Yamal Peninsula, it was named "Lyuba" after the discoverer's wife. The calf weighed 50 kg (110 lb), was 85 centimeters high and measured 130 centimeters from trunk to tail, roughly the same size as a large dog.

Upon finding, the calf was remarkably well-preserved; its eyes and trunk were intact and some fur remained on its body. The mammoth is to be transferred to Jikei University in Japan for further studying, including computer tomography scans.

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of the elephant family and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair. They lived from the Pliocene epoch from 4.8 million years ago to around 4,500 years ago. The word mammoth comes from the Russian мамонт mamont.

The six-month-old female mammoth calf, Lyuba, was discovered encased in a layer of permafrost near the Yuribei River in Russia where it had been buried for 37,000 years. Alexei Tikhonov, the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute's deputy director has dismissed the prospect of cloning the animal, as the whole cells required for cloning would have burst under the freezing conditions. DNA is expected to be well-preserved enough to be useful for research on mammoth phylogeny and perhaps physiology however.

Dog

Prior to the use of DNA researchers were divided into two schools of thought:

1. most supposed that these early dogs were descendants of tamed wolves, which interbred and evolved into a domesticated species.
2. other scientists, whilst believing wolves were the chief contributor, suspected that jackals or coyotes contributed to the dog's ancestry.

Carles Vilà of UCLA, who has conducted the most extensive study to date, has shown that DNA evidence has ruled out any ancestor canine species except the wolf. Vila's team analyzed 162 different examples of wolf DNA from 27 populations in Europe, Asia, and North America. These results were compared with DNA from 140 individual dogs from 67 breeds gathered from around the world. Using blood or hair samples, DNA was extracted and genetic distance for mitochondrial DNA was estimated between individuals.

Based on this DNA evidence, most of the domesticated dogs were found to be members of one of four groups. The largest and most diverse group contains sequences found in the most ancient dog breeds, including the dingo of Australia, the New Guinea Singing Dog, and many modern breeds, like the collie and retriever. Other groups such as the German shepherd showed a closer relation to wolf sequences than to those of the main dog group, suggesting that such breeds had been produced by crossing dogs with wild wolves. It is also possible that this is evidence that dogs may have been domesticated from wolves on different occasions and at different places. Vilà is still uncertain whether domestication happened once - after which domesticated dogs bred with wolves from time to time - or whether it happened more than once.

A later study by Peter Savolainen et al. identified DNA evidence suggesting a common origin from a single East Asian gene pool for all dog populations.

The most puzzling fact of the DNA evidence is that the variability in molecular distance between dogs and wolves seems greater than the 10,000–20,000 years assigned to domestication. Yet the process and economics of domestication by humans only emerged later in this period in any case. Based upon the molecular clock studies conducted, it would seem that dogs separated from the wolf lineage approximately 100,000 years ago. Although clear evidence for fossil dogs becomes obscure beyond about 14,000 years ago, there are fossils of wolf bones in association with early humans from well beyond 100,000 years ago. Tamed wolves might have taken up with hunter-gatherers without changing in ways that the fossil record could clearly capture. These dogs-in-process would possibly have dallied with wolves as packs of humans and canines traveled out of Africa and around the world. Since evidence of dogs is not found elsewhere before 14,000 years ago, it may be that the "Sahara pump" associated with the Glacial Maximum was responsible for the spread of the dogs out of Africa. Such a thesis is compatible with the spread of languages associated with the Nostratic hypothesis.

As humans migrated around the planet a variety of dog forms migrated with them. The agricultural revolution and subsequent urban revolution led to an increase in the dog population and a demand for specialization. These circumstances would provide the opportunity for selective breeding to create specialized types of working dogs and pets.

This rapid evolution of dogs from wolves is an example of neoteny or paedomorphism. As with many species, the young wolves are more social and less dominant than adults; therefore, the selection for these characteristics, whether deliberate or inadvertent, is more likely to result in a simple retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood than to generate a complex of independent new changes in behavior. (This is true of many domesticated animals, including humans themselves, who have many characteristics similar to young bonobos.) This paedomorphic selection naturally results in a retention of juvenile physical characteristics as well. Compared to wolves, many adult dog breeds retain such juvenile characteristics as soft fuzzy fur, round torsos, large heads and eyes, ears that hang down rather than stand erect, etc.; characteristics which are shared by most juvenile mammals, and therefore generally elicit some degree of protective and nurturing behavior cross-species from most adult mammals, including humans, who term such characteristics "cute" or "appealing".

* Origin of the Domestic Dog

* Dog Breed

* List of Dog Breeds

Cat

A 2007 study published in the journal Science asserts that all house cats are descended from a group of self-domesticating desert wildcats Felis silvestris lybica circa 10,000 years ago, in the Near East.

The domesticated cat and its closest wild ancestor are both diploid organisms that possess 38 chromosomes, in which over 200 heritable genetic defects have been identified, many homologous to human inborn errors. Specific metabolic defects have been identified underlying many of these feline diseases. There are several genes responsible for the hair color identified. The combination of them gives different phenotypes.

Features like hair length, lack of tail or presence of a very short tail (bobtail cat) are also determined by single alleles and modified by polygenes.

The Cat Genome Project, sponsored by the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the U.S. National Cancer Institute Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center in Frederick, Maryland, focuses on the development of the cat as an animal model for human hereditary disease, infectious disease, genome evolution, comparative research initiatives within the family Felidae, and forensic potential.

All felines, including the big cats, have a genetic anomaly that may prevent them from tasting sweetness, which is a likely factor for their indifference to or avoidance of fruits, berries, and other sugary foods.

* Cat Coat Genetics

* List of Cat Breeds

* Cats in Ancient Egypt

Dodo

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity. The adjective phrase "as dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead. The phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past.

The dodo was a close relative of modern pigeons and doves. mtDNA cytochrome b and 12S rRNA sequences analysis suggests that the dodo's ancestors diverged from those of its closest known relative, the Rodrigues Solitaire (which is also extinct), around the Paleogene-Neogene boundary.

The traditional image of the dodo is of a fat, clumsy bird, hence the official scientific name Didus ineptus, but this view has been challenged in recent times. The general opinion of scientists today is that the old drawings showed overfed captive specimens. As Mauritius has marked dry and wet seasons, the dodo probably fattened itself on ripe fruits at the end of the wet season to live through the dry season when food was scarce; contemporary reports speak of the birds' "greedy" appetite. In captivity, with food readily available, the birds became overfed very easily.

Mule

In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, which is classified as a kind of F1 hybrid. The reverse, the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey, is called a hinny. The term "mule" (Latin mulus) was formerly applied to the infertile offspring of any two creatures of different species. The mule, easier to breed and usually larger in size than a hinny, has monopolized the attention of breeders. Sometimes people let a stallion (male horse) run with a jenny (female donkey) for as long as six years before she becomes pregnant. Mules and hinnies are almost always sterile below for rare cases). The sterility is attributed to the differing number of chromosomes of the two species: donkeys have 62 chromosomes, whereas horses have 64.

A female mule, called a "molly", that has estrus cycles and can carry a fetus, can occasionally occur naturally as well as through embryo transfer.

In 2003, researchers at University of Idaho and Utah State University found a way to get mules to reproduce—by cloning the first mule as part of Project Idaho. The research team includes Gordon Woods, UI professor of animal and veterinary science, Kenneth L. White, USU professor of animal science, and Dirk Vanderwall, UI assistant professor of animal and veterinary science. The baby mule, Idaho Gem, was born May 4. It is the first clone of a hybrid animal. Veterinary examinations of the foal and its surrogate mother showed them to be in good health soon after birth. The foal's DNA comes from a fetal cell culture first established in 1998 at the University of Idaho.

Brown Rat

The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the best known and most common rats, and also one of the largest. Originally called the "Hanover rat" by people wishing to link problems in 18th century England with the House of Hanover, it is not known for certain why the brown rat is named Rattus norvegicus (Norwegian rat) as it did not originate from Norway.

By the early to middle part of the 19th century, British academics were aware that the brown rat was not native to Norway, hypothesizing (incorrectly) that it may have come from Ireland, Gibraltar or across the English Channel with William the Conqueror.

Likely originating from the plains of Asia, Northern China and Mongolia, the brown rat spread to other parts of the world sometime in the Middle Ages. The question of when brown rats became commensal with humans remains unsettled, but as a species they have spread and established themselves along routes of human migration and now live almost everywhere humans do.

Reliable reports dating to the 18th century document the presence of the brown rat in England in 1730, France in 1735, Germany in 1750, and Spain in 1800, becoming widespread during the Industrial Revolution. It did not reach North America until around 1750-1755.

The only brown rat-free zones in the world are the Arctic, the Antarctic, some especially isolated islands, the province of Alberta in Canada, and certain conservation areas in New Zealand.

Selective breeding of Rattus norvegicus has produced the laboratory rat, an important model organism in biological research, as well as pet rats (fancy rat). It is the most successful mammal on the planet, other than humans.

Pig

The domestic pig (or in some areas hog) is normally given the scientific name Sus scrofa scrofa, though some taxonomists use the term S. domestica, reserving S. scrofa for the wild boar.

The Domestic Pigs are believed to have been domesticated from wild boar as early as 7000 BC in the Near East and, separately, in China. DNA evidence from sub-fossil remains of teeth and jawbones of Neolithic pigs in Europe shows that the first domestic pigs there had been brought from the Near East. It appears that this stimulated the domestication of European wild boar, effectively forming a third domestication event – the Near Eastern genes later died out in European pigs, and domesticated European pigs were then exported in turn to the ancient Near East.

The adaptable nature and omnivorous diet of the wild boar allowed early humans to domesticate it much earlier than many other forms of livestock, such as cattle. Pigs were mostly used for food, but early civilizations also used the pigs' hides for shields, bones for tools and weapons, and bristles for brushes. Pigs were brought to southeastern North America from Europe by De Soto and other early Spanish explorer. Escaped pigs became feral and were used by Native Americans as food.

The distinction between wild and domestic animals is slight. Most domestic pigs usually have rather sparse hair covering on their skin, but the woolly coated breeds are known (Mangalitsa pig), and some were popular in the past. Escaped domestic pigs have become feral in many parts of the world (for example, New Zealand) and have caused substantial environmental damage.

Chicken

The Chicken (Gallus gallus, sometimes G. gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl likely descended from the wild Indian and southeast Asian Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) and the related Grey Junglefowl (G. sonneratii). Traditionally it has been widely accepted that the chicken was descended solely from the former, as hybrids of both wild types tended toward sterility; but recent genetic work has revealed that the genotype for yellow skin present in the domestic fowl is not present in what is otherwise its closest kin, the Red Junglefowl. It is deemed most likely, then, that the yellow skin trait in domestic birds originated in the Grey Junglefowl.

The chicken is one of the most common and widespread domestic animals. With a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other bird.

The first pictures of chickens in Europe are found on Corinthian pottery of the 7th century BCE. The poet Cratinus (mid-5th century BCE, according to the later Greek author Athenaeus) calls the chicken "the Persian alarm". In Aristophanes's comedy The Birds (414 BCE) a chicken is called "the Median bird", which points to an introduction from the East. Pictures of chickens are found on Greek red figure and black-figure pottery.

In ancient Greece, chickens were still rare and were a rather prestigious food for symposia. Delos seems to have been a centre of chicken breeding.

An early domestication of chickens in Southeast Asia is probable, since the word for domestic chicken (*manuk) is part of the reconstructed Proto-Austronesian language (see Austronesian languages). Chickens, together with dogs and pigs, were the domestic animals of the Lapita culture, the first Neolithic culture of Oceania.

Chickens were spread by Polynesian seafarers and reached Easter Island in the 12th century BCE, where they were the only domestic animal, with the possible exception of the Polynesian Rat (Rattus exulans). They were housed in extremely solid chicken coops built from stone. Traveling as cargo on trading boats, they reached the Asian continent via the islands of Indonesia and from there spread west to Europe and western Asia.

* Chicken Hypnotism

Dolly

Second Creation : Dolly and the Age of Biological Control by Ian Wilmut, Colin Tudge, Keith Campbell

After Dolly : The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning by Ian Wilmut, Roger Highfield

CC

(Snuppy) South Korea Unveils First Dog Clone by BBC News

Jurasic Park by Michael Crighton

Pet Kitten Cloned for Christmas by BBC News

Photo by www.glofish.com

GloFish

In spring of 2003, Taiwan became the first to authorize sales of a genetically modified organism as a pet. One hundred thousand fish were reported sold in less than a month at US$18.60 a piece. It should be clarified that the fluorecent medaka are not GloFish, as they are not marketed by Yorktown Technologies, but instead by Taikong Corp under a different brand name.

Tasmanian Tiger

In 2002, geneticists at the Australian Museum announced that they had replicated DNA of the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), extinct about 65 years previous, using polymerase chain reaction. However, on 2005-02-15 the museum announced that it was stopping the project after tests showed the specimens' DNA had been too badly degraded by the (ethanol) preservative. Most recently, on 2005-05-15, it was announced that the Thylacine project would be revived, with new participation from researchers in New South Wales and Victoria.

Baby Mammoth Discovery Unveiled by Paul Rincon

Bulldog

Bulldogs were bred in England as a cross between the mastiff and the pug.

In the 1600s, bulldogs were used for bullbaiting (as well as bearbaiting), a gambling sport popular in the 17th century with wagers laid in which trained bulldogs leapt at a bull lashed to a post, latched onto its snout and attempted to suffocate it.

The bulldog is prone to health issues. Breathing issues can be prevalent in the breed due to the shape of the "undershot" lower jaw and the shortness of muzzle- originally bred for gripping - bulldogs are known to snore.

Because of the large heads in proportion to body size, puppies are frequently delivered by Caesarean section as they can get stuck in the birth canal during natural birth, however it is not uncommon for a bulldog to whelp naturally and successfully.

Chihuahua

The Chihuahua  is the smallest breed of dog in the world and is named after the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, where it was discovered in 1850

The developmental history of the Chihuahua is very difficult to trace and is based largely on speculation and theory, however through folklore, legend and archeological finds, there is sufficient evidence to prove that it is without doubt an ancient breed originating from Pre-Columbian Mexico, and it is believed to outdate any other breed of dog in the Americas. The most common theory and most likely is that Chihuahuas are descended from the Techichi, a companion dog favoured by the Toltecs and that the modern dog developed through breeding with miniaturised Chinese dogs brought to the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors.

Persian Cat

Persian cats have been first brought to Europe in the XVI century from Iran. Their appearance then differed greatly from today's standard. Hundreds of years of selective breeding made Persians cobbier cats with drastically shorter muzzle. It's not clear when longhair cats (in general) first appeared, as there are no African Wildcats (believed to be ancestors of domesticated cats) with that kind of fur. There have been claims that the gene responsible for long hair was introduced through hybridization with Pallas cat. Recent research however refute this theory.

Dodo

The dodo appears on the coat of arms of Mauritius.

Mule

Brown Rat

Black Rat

Polynesian Rat

Painting of Saint Anthony with pig in background by Piero di Cosimo

Pigs are known to be intelligent animals and have been found to be more trainable than dogs or cats. Asian pot-bellied pigs, a small type of domestic pig, have made popular house pets in the United States beginning in the latter half of the 20th century. Most pigs have a fear of being picked up, but will usually calm down once placed back on the floor. Pigs are rarely used as working animals. An exception is the use of truffle pigs – ordinary pigs trained to find truffles.

Araucana

An unusual variety of chicken that has its origins in South America is the araucana. Araucanas, some of which are tailless and some of which have tufts of feathers around their ears, lay blue-green eggs. It has long been suggested that they predate the arrival of European chickens brought by the Spanish and are evidence of pre-Columbian trans-Pacific contacts between Asian or Pacific Oceanic peoples. particularly the Polynesians, and South America. In 2007, an international team of researchers reported the results of analysis of chicken bones found on the Arauco Peninsula in south central Chile. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the chickens were Pre-Columbian, and DNA analysis showed that they were related to prehistoric populations of chickens in Polynesia. These results appear to confirm that the chickens came from Polynesia and that there were transpacific contacts between Polynesia and South America before Columbus's arrival in the Americas.