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Environment

Hybrid embryos made to save the doomed northern white rhino

By Michael Le Page

4 July 2018

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Najin (R) and Fatu are the only remaining northern white rhinos

TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty

In Jurassic Park, a little 200-million-year-old blood was all it took to revive rampaging hordes of dinosaurs. In the real world, we’re struggling to save to species that are still living. Biologists are now resorting to desperate measures to bring the northern white rhino back from the brink.

The northern white rhino is one of two subspecies of white rhinos. Around 20,000 southern white rhinos still survive in southern Africa, but their northern cousins in central Africa appear doomed. Those living in the wild have been…

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