Bizarre extinct frog brought back to life

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Sorry, this video has expired Video: Scientists try to bring extinct species back to life (7pm TV News NSW)

Imagine a frog that can swallow its eggs, brood its young in its stomach and give birth through its mouth.

The gastric brooding frog existed 30 years ago, but the extraordinary amphibian is now extinct.

In a world first, a team of Australian scientists has taken the first major step in bringing it back to life.

They have successfully reactivated its DNA and produced an embryo.

Professor Mike Archer from the University of New South Wales is part of the team, which also includes researchers from the University of Newcastle.

He says the amphibian was no ordinary frog.

"In the stomach these eggs went on to develop into tadpoles and the tadpoles then went on to develop into little frogs," he told ABC radio's AM program.

"And like any pregnant mum, when you have little babies rattling away in your stomach saying, 'let me out', she would then open her mouth and out would pop little frogs.

"The first people that saw that were aghast. By the time anybody got excited about it, suddenly it was extinct.

"So that's certainly one of the driving reasons why this would be a focal animal for seeing if we can de-extinct this amazing frog."

That is exactly what a team of Australian scientists is doing.

After locating a few carcasses stored in a deep freezer, they have been able to recover tissue from the gastric brooding frog.

Using a laboratory technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, they have implanted the dead cell nucleus from the extinct species into a fresh egg from another related frog.

The reproductive process then took over, and the scientists have created an embryo.

"There was one day in the laboratory that was so exciting when all of a sudden the egg from this living species that had had one of these extinct frogs nuclei inserted into it, started to divide, and then divide again," Professor Archer said.

"We were holding our breath and then it just kept going.

"There were high fives all around the laboratory. It was an extremely exciting moment and it went on to develop an embryo."

By developing the embryo of the gastric brooding frog, the scientists are one step closer to bringing this species back from extinction.

So far the embryo has only survived 36 hours.

'Second crack at life'

By teaming up with scientists in the United States, Professor Archer is confident that producing a tadpole is a step they can take.

"We are in a research zone beyond where anyone else has been before and there's no sign post," he said.

All these [extinct and endangered] species are hanging out, hoping these trials will succeed because that will give them a second crack at life. Professor Mike Archer

"There's no milepost to tell us how far you've got to go to get to your goal.

"I guess I am optimistic that teaming up with this other group, I'd like to say within the next couple of years we'll have this guy hopping back again."

And it is not just frogs.

By creating a tool using the animal's DNA, the team hopes the technique can be used as a way of future-proofing a species, and down the track bringing other extinct animals back to life.

"There's so many, the crescent nail tail wallaby, the lesser bilby, even some of the ones that are dreadfully endangered now like the North Queensland hairy nose wombat," Professor Archer said.

"All these species are hanging out, hoping these trials will succeed because that will give them a second crack at life."

Topics: cloning-and-dna, genetics, dna, amphibians, science-and-technology, animal-science, australia, adelaide-5000, sydney-2000

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