The Smilodon Code

The Smilodon Code—my latest book in progress- began with a short dream. It had to do with an arctic ski resort that was losing skiers - but not exactly due to a collision with trees — it was an animal - a prehistoric animal, in fact, that was up there mauling its guests. The hotel was, of course, not exactly disclosing the information until further investigation. A fiction writer would say it could happen— even though it sounds very unlikely. We don´t miss the possibilities or care about the feasibility at all. Perhaps these ancient cats— these primeval creatures have somehow survived through the 21st century and discovered their new prey - skiers at an arctic ski resort. Carefully stalking the skiers, it approaches within just a few meters before launching an explosive attack. The forgotten feline arises from the mist, with its two long canines, giving the killing bite. Bloodshed in white snow, a gory scene.

Let's start with "Smilodon" which is the Latin name for a saber-tooth tiger, and what I mean by a smilodon code is the genetic code of the saber tooth cat. This fanged creature’s DNA was mapped in 2020 by scientists after they extracted DNA from a scimitar-toothed cat fossil that lived at least 47,500 years ago. The ancient saber tooth tiger was recovered from Ice Age permafrost sediments near Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Science is about to tell us a story you see.

So I found myself drawn to this mysterious piece of information, and my imagination switched into high gear. Science gives an inch, science fiction writers take a few million miles — in all directions. Fiction writers like me try to slog through the research, then speculate the "what ifs".

Bone-chilling possibilities arise because scientists are actually working on something known as de-extinction. They have not perfected the method yet, but there is a plan to rebuild the wooly mammoths and other extinct animals today by companies like Colossal Biotech. And more famously, a Russian businessman by the name of Andrey Melnichenko.

The plan is to take skin cells from African lions (or elephants in the case of woolly mammoths) and put them into stem cells with frozen Smilodon DNA or mastidone DNA to form an embryo. The embryos would then be implanted in the females of the species that would give birth to the smilodon, mammoth dodo bird, or what have you. Essentially, a sort of hybrid would be born, but the new creations would be extinct animals like cave lions or mammoths, and enough of them would be created to breed again on their own. Reborn. De-extinct.
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Initially, I didn't know about this technology, so once I began my story, I needed an explanation for my saber tooth tiger. One night, while chatting with family, I had a brainstorming session to go over my ideas. I began by suggesting a comet because I needed a clear plot and structure. 

"Maybe a comet with life-giving proteins, amino acids, what have you, slams into a perma-frosted cat in the area near the ski resort, which causes a strange chain of events. So... some sort of weird comet causes a perma-frozen beast or two to come to life?" I began.

."How about a cosmic event?" my brother chimes in. "Like a galactic cosmic ray, that creates a bizarre time-warp event on Earth?" Somehow, it creates a portal in time, and a few prehistoric beasts pass through...

"I like it," I exclaim. "Oh wait, but how do I explain it exactly?" I asked. He shrugged. "You don't. You just suggest it. No one knows exactly. That's all the readers need to know," he smiles. "It's a mystery. An anomaly."

I decide to run with it. "Okay, so... an unknown physical mechanism creates a time curvature near some Neanderthals, who are on a mammoth hunt near the Arctic. They see a strange bright aurora borealis in the sky, then - somehow, the Neanderthals and the mammoths they're hunting, unwittingly get caught in a portal and find themselves in the future. Near an artic hotel.

"Along with a saber tooth tiger," my sister chimes in. She smiles.

The room goes quiet. I break the silence.

"Of course, there could be another explanation. Perhaps there's a secretive lab where mad scientists are creating prehistoric beasts. They've escaped?" 

My mother replies - "Too easy."

But little did she know, that a mad scientist type, wasn't too contrived or too easy. The fact is - is that a real Russian businessman is proposing a “Pleistocene Park” and wants to use DNA from mammoths found frozen in the ice to recreate them. Coined as "de-extinction" Andrey Melnichenko touts his idea as a climate fix. And a US company based in Texas, called Collassal Biotech is working with him to make it a reality.

The scientists behind Pleistocene Park claim grazing animals like the extint mammoths — could foster plants that absorb CO2 and reduce the heat sucked into the earth.

When I encountered this information, I couldn't believe my luck. After all, what could be better than a mad oligarch with a God complex who becomes bored of money and dabbles in DNA?

And what happens if things don't exactly go as planned? Will Mother Nature have ideas of her own? This is the fun as a fiction writer and my passion. For the good and the bad of writing, or de-extinction, let's just hope that mankind doesn't put its own species on the endangered list. Who would imagine there's already a real plan to resurrect a woolly mammoth - no comets or time warp is needed— or fiction writers for that matter.

All that's needed is the DNA...

It’s good to remind ourselves that while science fiction may be based loosely on scientific truth, it is still fiction — or is it?




https://colossal.com/


https://www.intellinews.com/russian-oligarch-to-revive-woolly-mammoths-in-a-real-life-jurassic-park-to-stop-siberian-permafrost-melting-304046/#:~:text=Russian%20billionaire%20chemicals%20oligarch%20Andrey,would%20be%20a%20climate%20catastrophe.