Ever since Jurassic Park, people have been talking about bringing animals back from extinction.
While it isn't possible to revive animals that died out hundreds of millions of years
ago, it may be possible to bring an animal out of extinction if it died out more recently.
Here are some of the animals science wants to bring back from extinction.
Aurochs
Ever wonder why those amazing paintings of cattle on cave walls throughout Europe don't
really look like the cows we have today?
It's not because cavemen are crappy artists.
It's because they aren't actually cows at all, but rather Aurochs, a gigantic relative
of the cow family that used to roam Europe.
Unfortunately, the last aurochs died in the forests of Poland in 1627, but scientists
are actively working to bring the beast back to life.
And it's not too far-fetched, given that our modern cows descended from aurochs.
Scientists are compiling aurochs DNA, and after comparing it to the DNA of domestic
cattle, they've begun selectively breeding cows to return dormant genetic traits from
generation to generation.
It's going to take some time, but scientists believe by 2025 they should be able to reverse-engineer
the aurochs, with the first generations already alive and kicking.
And since they're so much bigger than today's cows, think of all the steaks!
Woolly mammoth
The wooly mammoth has long been a candidate for a species humans would like to return
to the land of the living.
One big reason is that a number of well-preserved mammoth corpses have been uncovered recently
from the Siberian tundra, allowing scientists to piece together mammoth DNA and completely
sequence its genome.
That gives scientists a blueprint to recreate the mammoth.
Perhaps more importantly, they have an actual reason to do it beyond mere curiosity.
Mammoths used to help protect the ecosystem of their grassland home, but when they died
out, the grassland was overtaken by the tundra.
That's now contributing to the melting of the permafrost, speeding up climate change.
Some scientists believe that by reintroducing mammoths to the tundra, the grasslands can
be brought back as well.
They're currently working on breeding a new strain of mammoth by using DNA to artificially
manipulate a modified elephant embryo.
Moa
An ostrich/velociraptor hybrid that went extinct only about 500 years ago, the Moa was native
to New Zealand before overhunting and habitat loss led to their extinction.
Since they went extinct less so recently, there are numerous samples of Moa DNA, which
the crowdfunded Moa Revival Project is using to try and bring the Moa back to life.
First, though, they have to sequence the moa's DNA, a task made trickier by the fact that
there are nine distinct types of moa.
Hopefully for our sake, if the moa is brought back, we'll be able to describe them more
a as "plant-eating ostrich" instead of a "people-hungry raptor."
Pyrenean ibex
Also known as the bucardo, the Pyrenean ibex just went extinct at the beginning of the
millennium.
And it's a great candidate for de-extinction because scientists have already brought it
back once!
Well, sort of.
After the last bucardos died out, scientists harvested their DNA and attempted to clone
them using a common goat as a surrogate mother.
It worked, with the goat giving birth to a live bucardo on July 30, 2004.
Unfortunately, though, it died a few minutes later from respiratory failure.
Still, it was a key moment in the advancement of cloning technology, as well as the first
time an extinct species was ever brought back, even if only briefly.
A new effort to clone the bucardo began in 2013, so here's hoping things go even better this time.
Quagga
Even if you've never heard of the quagga, you do know of its still-living cousin: the
zebra.
Quaggas looked similar to zebras, but were brown and had no stripes on the rear half
of their bodies, almost as if Mother Nature forgot to finish painting it.
Quagga herds used to roam South Africa, but they were hunted to extinction by the late
1880s.
Since then, the quagga has been a primary interest to scientists for de-extinction.
A group called the Quagga Project has been working to reintroduce the quagga to South
Africa, via selective breeding.
The project is already underway, and appears to be working.
"We're not using any fancy cloning techniques or genetic engineering techniques on the project.
It is a very simple project of selective breeding"
As of 2016, six of these new quagga exist, so they're still a ways off from their goal
of a herd of 50, but it's looking good.
Thylacine
Also known as a Tasmanian Wolf or Tiger, the Thylacine is another animal that recently
succumbed to extinction, with the last captive specimen dying in 1936.
Projects are ongoing to try and restore the thylacine from extinction.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne recently succeeded in inserting genetic material
from a thylacine into a Tasmanian Devil, a close relative of the thylacine.
This success represented the first time that DNA from an extinct species was used to induce
a functional response in another organism.
This only the first step in the long path to bring back the thylacine, though scientists
speculate that within 20 years, research will bring the full-fledged return of the Tasmanian
Wolf.
Call your friends to tell them the good news!
*Incoherent babble*
Southern gastric-brooding frog
The Southern gastric-brooding frog went extinct sometime in the mid-1980s, and we want to
bring it back, if for nothing else than pure amusement.
See, this bizarre creature is the only organism known to give birth from its mouth, after
a weird process where the frog's stomach would somehow turn into a uterus during the gestation
period.
It's so strange we just have to see it to believe it.
In 2013, researchers funded by the Lazarus Project succeeded in growing embryos containing
the revived DNA from the gastric-brooding frog.
They accomplished this by inserting the dead material from the extinct frog into donor
eggs from a living species.
The eggs continued to grow into embryos, the first time such a technique was achieved for
an extinct species.
Continued analysis proved that the cells from the extinct frog were multiplying, which allows
for the potential for us to one day gawk at a frog that literally vomits babies from its
mouth.
Passenger pigeon
At one time, there were an estimated five billion passenger pigeons flying the skies
of North America.
It was one of the most common birds in the world but, due to overhunting, it went extinct
a century ago.
Fortunately, there are more than 1,500 passenger pigeon DNA samples spread throughout the museums
of the world, which is why geneticist Ben Novak has been able to restructure the bird's
genes.
He and other scientists have identified the closest living relative.
They plan to sequence both types of pigeons in order to isolate what makes the passenger
pigeon unique, then use this knowledge to recreate the passenger pigeon.
Finally, a new way to mess up your car windshield.
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