[Adam Khor]

This monster mountain goat was at least 50% larger than the modern day Iberian ibex (which went extinct in 2000 and became the first extinct animal to be cloned and brought back to life in 2009, although it died shortly after its birth becoming the first animal to become extinct twice...)

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/article00411.html

[Guyett]

I'll keep a look out for fossils of them here... however as I'm mapping out late Cretaceous and very early Triassic I doubt I'll find any of them.

[Adam Khor]

Originally Posted by Guyett

I'll keep a look out for fossils of them here... however as I'm mapping out late Cretaceous and very early Triassic I doubt I'll find any of them.

You're in the Pyrenees? :O

[Guyett]

yep spending 6 weeks here mapping for my dissertation.

[Rubecula]

The strange thing about this, is the thought that keeps going through my head at how much meat is on the beast.

Odd isn't it? It is a valuable find and all I can think of is how many it could feed.

Any possibility of a new Ibex clone by the way. A majestic mountain creature like that deserves every chance in my own opinion.

(What species would be a mother for it?)

[Adam Khor]

Originally Posted by Rubecula

Any possibility of a new Ibex clone by the way. A majestic mountain creature like that deserves every chance in my own opinion.

(What species would be a mother for it?)

The mother species should be another subspecies of Ibex. What caught my eye while reading about the whole Ibex cloning project is that they actually implanted some of the cloned embryos into Ibex females, yet the gestation was for some reason never completed.
The one that was born after many attempts (I think there were originally over 400 embryos) was actually born from a domestic goat, which belongs to the same genus but a different species.

(not an Ibex, but a cloned banteng, another endangered species)

I don´t know if there are ongoing projects to clone the Ibex again- the process seems very difficult and expensive and perhaps they are focusing on other, more endangered species (the Iberian Ibex is a subspecies and there are still others living in Spain and elsewhere). Spain has some critically endangered animals such as the Iberian Lynx, the world's rarest cat species, and I remember hearing about a scientist who was considering to use cloning to preserve it. (How, I don´t know... wouldn´t an already low genetic diversity mean cloning would be useless anyways?)

[Galvasean]

Originally Posted by Adam Khor

(How, I don´t know... wouldn´t an already low genetic diversity mean cloning would be useless anyways?)

I suppose, in theory, you could use DNA from each individual and map each one's DNA individually to see which ones are the least related to each other and clone them with a view to breeding them thusly. I cannot imagine such an endevour would be easy or cheap for that matter. Even if done meticulously I can't imagine the odds of success (from a conservation POV) would be anything but slim. More than likely, any such clones would be restricted to zoos etc. as I don't see re-population on any large scale being feasible.

[Adam Khor]

Originally Posted by Galvasean

More than likely, any such clones would be restricted to zoos etc. as I don't see re-population on any large scale being feasible.

Exactly. As for already extinct species like the mammoth, the dodo or the thylacine, there's no way the species could be "brought back" like scientists like to say. If the creatures were succesfully cloned, they would still belong to functionally extinct species. With the available genetic material I doubt it would be possible to restore the species again. Also, I doubt they would even be willing to release their precious clones into the wild. They would end up as glorified freak show curiosities.

OMG I'm sounding like Ian Malcolm

[Galvasean]

It'll happen more and more as you get older...