New Delhi, India

Humans and human-made disasters are constantly threatening an increasing number of creatures, some of which have inhabited the Earth far longer than our species. Some species like the Sumatran Rhino are gone forever, but scientists may have a way to save the remaining endangered creatures for future generations. How, you may ask? Four words: Tissue banks on the Moon.

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Moon to the rescue

An international team of scientists has raised concerns that threats like climate change and habitat loss due to human activities have far outpaced humanity's ability to protect the many species on the verge of extinction. They suggest that the solution to this massive problem may lie outside our planet…on the moon to be exact.

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The scientists propose setting up biorepositories or tissue banks on the lunar surface.

What are biorepositories?

A biorepository or tissue bank, in this case, is quite simply a doomsday room to store and preserve tissues from the Earth's creatures.

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Why? You may ask. The answer is: Just in case, humans fail in the conservation efforts or if something like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs happens again.

How can this save the animals?

It can't exactly. But, it can give us the ability to clone them at a later date. To do this, scientists want to preserve cells and the crucial DNA within them. These samples stored in a tissue bank are the worst-case scenario safeguard.

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Which animals would we save?

Those facing the risk of imminent extinction and the species that play a crucial function in their environment and food webs.

But why the moon?

Setting up a biorepository on the Moon will have many advantages.

Firstly, low temperatures are needed to preserve biological samples. The lunar surface naturally boasts frigid temperatures of -196ºC, necessary to preserve the samples in a way suitable for future cloning.

Additionally, the Moon can keep the samples even if something were to happen to our planet. For example, a doomsday seed bank in Ukraine was destroyed in 2002 during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. 

Another seed bank, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle that provides frozen storage of seeds to ensure important food crops can be re-established if wiped out by disease or drought, was recently threatened by flooding because of warm temperatures. 

"So all in all, the idea of having a really secure, passive biorepository for safeguarding Earth’s biodiversity seems like a really good idea," said the proposal's lead author, Dr Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

(With inputs from agencies)