Hendrik Poinar
Hendrik Poinar
Hendrik Nicholas Poinar is an evolutionary biologist specializing in ancient DNA. Poinar first became known for extracting DNA sequences from ground sloth coprolites. He is currently director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth31 May 1969
across descendant globe stems
Every outbreak across the globe today stems from a descendant of the medieval plague.
above conditions constant maintain periods though time
You can go into caves, and they can maintain constant conditions of temperature and humidity over long periods of time, even though the outside temperature may be way above what it is inside the cave.
bring extinct good theme
There is no good scientific reason to bring back an extinct species. Why would one bring them back? To put them in a theme park?
brought change climate ecosystems good mammoth maybe
If we brought the mammoth back to Siberia, maybe that would be good for the ecosystems that are changing because of climate change.
million separated
We know African and Asian elephants can interbreed, and they're separated by 5 million to 6 million years.
ancient bit couple good preserving quite sources teeth time turn
Teeth actually turn out to be one of a couple of good sources of ancient DNA. The teeth, actually the enamel, is quite good at preserving the DNA, so it is a bit of time capsule so to speak.
climate habitat highly lived north plastic siberia tremendous turns
It turns out that there are swaths of habitat in the north of Siberia and Yukon that actually could house a mammoth. Remember, this was a highly plastic animal that lived over tremendous climate variation.
amber gaze insects kept microscope remarkably
When I was a young boy, I used to gaze through the microscope of my father at the insects in amber that he kept in the house. And they were remarkably well preserved, morphologically just phenomenal.
iconic mammoth north russians
I'm not sure the Russians would be happy that their iconic wooly mammoth has North American origins.
science
Typically, there's a drive in science to do something just to say you've done it.
america central huge north particular scientists western
Scientists have always thought that because mammoths roamed such a huge territory - from Western Europe to Central North America - that North American woolly mammoths were a sideshow of no particular significance to the evolution of the species.
dna enzymes nuclear
Nuclear DNA encodes all the proteins and enzymes that make you you, basically.
evolution study
The study of evolution is an evolution in itself.
parks reason theme
There is no good scientific reason to bring back an extinct species. Why would one bring them back? To put them in a theme park?