The Smilodon Code





"Smilodon" 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. Believe it or not, 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. And so am I...

So The Smilodon Code —my latest book in progress, was inspired by this information. The lines of science and science fiction become blurred when an arctic ski resort suddenly loses skiers - but not due to a collision with trees — it is an animal - a prehistoric animal, in fact, that is up there mauling its guests. The hotel is, of course, not precisely disclosing the information until further investigation. Carefully stalking the skiers, the prehistoric cat 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.

I invested myself in the story even further when I found a significant coincidence going on right now 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 and put them into stem cells with frozen Smilodon 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 almost exactly like the extinct animals we know like cave lions or mammoths, and enough of them would be created to breed again on their own. De-extinct. Reborn...

And when scientists display their great ability to raise extinct animals back from the dead -  will we simply raise an eyebrow? Do we merely appreciate their contributions and admire a significant breakthrough? The line of a fiction writer is to contemplate a lot more than that. I make my observations, imagine, record what I see, and then make some connections.  Life doesn't always follow a straight line and mother nature is a force to be reckoned with. My line of thinking follows that the cats get loose, and somehow survive— and breed out there in the wild. And when they do, they also discover their new easy prey - skiers at an arctic ski resort... 

Science gives an inch, science fiction writers take a few million miles — or should I say? —a few million years —in all directions. It's only a matter of slogging through the research, then speculating the "what ifs".  I am merely sharing what I learned from real facts and jumping into a void of unknowns and dangers.

I actually appreciate being given the opportunity a mad scientist type, isn't 'that" contrived. 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?

What happens if things don't exactly go as planned? Will Mother Nature have ideas of her own in the snow, near an artic hotel?  

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