From a supersized jungle cat to a legendary sea cow, plus some prehistoric dinosaurs! Here are
10 of the coolest extinct animals scientists are actually trying to bring back to life!
10: Passenger Pigeon If any animal is about to be brought back
by scientists, it will be the passenger pigeon. Efforts have been going on for over a decade to
try and bring the passenger pigeon back to life. Not only do scientists think they can de-extinct
the passenger pigeon, they also think they can restore its place in the forests of America.
But just what exactly is the passenger pigeon? It was once the dominant species of pigeon throughout
much of North America. There were actually flocks of pigeons numbering in the billions,
and it was like this for tens of thousands of years before they were extinguished. Why were
these birds wiped from the face of the earth? Well, because people began breeding animals like
rabbits and tearing down all their trees. Because there had been so many of these birds, they were
one of the most important tools for the ecosystem. They spread seeds as they flew through forests and
this really helped the ecosystem thrive. But sadly, the last passenger pigeon died in 1914
at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her name was Martha. Now, a group of ex-extinction engineers are
working tirelessly to revive the iconic animal and jump start the ecosystem.
Soon, the world may have many more Marthas flying around! Whether they’ll succeed is yet to be seen.
9: Caspian Tiger Scientists are trying to bring back the extinct
Caspian tiger, an absolute beast of a feline that went the way of the dodo back in the 1960s,
which if you think about, really is not even that long ago. They were once some of the
biggest cats found anywhere on our planet. Caspian tigers were a little smaller than
Siberian tigers, but males could weigh up to 530 pounds(240kg), and adults grew to about 10
feet(3m) long - larger than most big cats today. Lions are about 420 pounds(190kg) in weight,
jaguars around 212 pounds(96kg), and leopards are a lot lighter at 68 pounds(31kg).
They once roamed throughout Turkey, Central Asia, and even into the northwest of China.
But unfortunately, because of hunting, human encroachment, and the inevitable food shortage,
the Caspian tiger went by the wayside and we haven't seen one in over 50 years.
Today, there is a plan to create something that is genetically similar to the Caspian tiger by using
Siberian tigers. But this isn't really bringing back a dead species. Nobody is cloning any old
bones, though that would be kind of cool. Instead, scientists would simply introduce
Siberian tigers into the region where Caspian tigers used to live, then ensure they have ample
food and space to roam. Scientists say that if 40 Siberian tigers are introduced to the area,
there could be 100 of them walking around in half a century. And then maybe eventually,
Siberian tigers will just naturally become new Caspian tigers… or then again, maybe not.
8: Aurochs
Not only are scientists trying to revive extinct species, they are also trying to
restore ancient lands. Before there were nine billion of us crawling around the planet like
grubby little ants, the wilderness was chalk full of animals. One of these animals was the aurochs,
a huge beast kind of like a supersized bull. We know these animals used to be prosperous all over
the world because we've seen cave paintings of them that date back tens of thousands of
years – and we’ve found their skeletons dating back even further. The aurochs is really the
ancestor to all modern cattle, with the last one dying back in 1627 in Europe.
But to bring back the aurochs is perhaps the first step in bringing back the prehistoric wilderness.
Or rather, bringing back natural areas with stabilized wildlife like there used to be.
Scientists believe if they breed together specially selected offspring from modern ox and
cattle and anything else related to the aurochs, they wouldn't even need to use any kind of genetic
modification. They could simply bring the giant cattle back to life through selective breeding.
But even if they get the aurochs back, or at least a close facsimile of one, an even bigger task
is creating enough of a landscape in Europe for animals like this to roam without being in danger.
7: Heath Hen In 1932,
the last heath hen died on Martha's Vineyard. At the time, there was a huge effort to stop the hen
from becoming completely extinct. That effort was a massive failure and everyone watched a very real
extinction play out in slow motion. The Vineyard Gazette wrote in 1933, “There is no survivor,
there is no future, there is no life to be recreated in this form again.”
But they may have been all wrong. There have been a lot of scientific advances in the last 80 years.
Obviously, nobody could have foreseen that scientists would figure out how to bring the
heath hen back to life. Martha's Vineyard may now become the site of a true resurrection!
Revive & Restore, a fringe organization trying to coordinate projects that involve bringing
dead animals back to life, is very interested in the heath hen and they could actually bring
the bird back within our lifetime. The hen only vanished less than 100 years ago after all and its
DNA is still around! With a bit of funding and community support, Rive & Restore is confident
that the heath hen could be one of the first ever animals truly resurrected from the grave.
What do you think of the Revive & Restore project? What animal would you like to see brought back?
Let me know in the comments below and if you’re liking this video,
be sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already! :)
6: Moa Bird Scientists are a bit closer to bringing back
the little bush moa, which is a giant flightless bird that lived in New Zealand over 700 years ago.
Think of an emu or a cassowary – but even more terrifying and dangerous. The moa was basically a
living dinosaur with feathers, and for the first time ever, a team of researchers from Harvard
University put together the animal’s genome. They did this by extracting DNA from a toe bone they
borrowed from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. But just what happened to the moa? According to
Daily Mail, they went extinct abruptly in the late 13th century when humans arrived on the
island of New Zealand and realized moa tasted like chicken. Because these birds were so big,
they couldn't really fly away or escape primitive humans and their arrows.
But here's why moa birds may actually come back to life. Harvard scientists were able
to slip the DNA taken from the toe bone into the egg of a living bird species to map its genome.
With that information, scientists will be able to understand more about the
species and how to bring it back – hopefully, in the next few decades.
Why scientists want to bring back a terrifying and dangerous bird? Beats me..
5: Irish Elk The Irish elk,
like many other animals, went extinct at the end of the last ice age, probably through no fault of
its own and for once, not because of overhunting. It was the changing climate that did them in.
These elk were absolute giants, standing over 7 feet(2.1m) tall with antlers that measured more
than 12 feet(3.6m) across! Can you imagine an elf with antlers longer than your bed or car?!
The great news about the Irish elk is that there are a lot of them preserved underneath the
permafrost, and many more of them are being thawed as the world heats up and the permafrost melts.
You can even find antlers belonging to these ancient giants mounted on the walls of hunting
lodges and castles throughout much of Ireland! The abundance of DNA makes the
Irish elk a great contender for revitalization. While it is still a few years away from becoming
reality, the Irish elk is definitely one of the main species scientists are looking at right now
to bring back to life. 4: Dinosaurs
Depending on who you ask, dinosaurs are making a comeback. During a panel with the actual scientist
who Dr. Alan Grant from the movie Jurassic Park was inspired by, Dr. Jack Horner, he said we
should be seeing dinosaurs between now and 2025. Jack tried for years to extract DNA from chickens,
the closest relatives to dinosaurs, to bring them back to life. But that never worked.
Now, Jack and other scientists like him are hoping to recreate a dinosaur by mashing different parts
of DNA together to create something new. And even though the technology seems completely absurd and
like something out of science fiction, it may be closer to reality than many of us realize.
Jack explained that birds are living dinosaurs. When consulting on the movie Jurassic Park,
he tried to get Steven Spielberg to put feathers on velociraptors because that's what they looked
like in real life – but of course, Hollywood is all about entertainment and not accuracy.
But in the real world, when someone finally does bring back a velociraptor, it's going to look a
lot more like a predatory peacock than a giant reptile. And according to the experts, we could
see one in as little as four years – though of course, others say it could be more like 40.
If the thought of dinosaurs being brought back from extinction freaks you out,
you’re not the only one.. For some crazy reason I don’t see this working out very well..
3: Steller’s Sea Cow A team of scientists and
researchers from across the globe have finally analyzed the genome of the Steller’s sea cow,
marking the first step in bringing this aquatic giant mammal back from the depths of extinction.
No, this cow was not at all like your typical farm cow, and you couldn’t exactly milk one either.
The Steller’s sea cow was actually a huge, manatee-like animal that lived in and around the
Bering Sea and sadly, the creature went extinct around 1741. There are still three living species
that belong to the same family as the Steller’s sea cow. These include manatees and dugong.
The last scientist to witness the Steller’s sea cow, biologist Georg Wilhelm Steller from Germany,
said the animal was at least 6 tons(12,000lbs) and almost 30 feet(9m) in length. Holy cow! But
it wasn't until recently that scientists figured out why the animal vanished.
It most likely had a lot to do with human hunting, big shocker there,
though the climate change beginning about 25,000 years ago also contributed to declining population
levels. They may have bounced back, but European sailors made sure that they didn’t stick around.
Now that scientists have mapped the animal's genome, they're hoping that one day they can
bring it back. But even if they do, there may be no hope for it to remain alive. Hunting has
significantly reduced the natural diet of the Steller’s sea cow, meaning even if we brought 20
of them back to life and put them in the ocean, they might be dead in just a few years anyway.
2: Great Auk The last great auk was
seen alive in 1852. It was a bird that kind of looked like a penguin, and it lived along
the rocky shores of the North Atlantic. They lived in large colonies, they mated for life,
and they did things that penguins did. But crews of men living through the summer in the
far north hunted the great auk mercilessly for food until all the birds were gone.
The closest relative today is something called the razor-billed auk, and according to Vice News, a
team of genetic scientists are trying to resurrect the great auk by editing its DNA into this closest
known relative – DNA which they extracted from plenty of fossils and preserved organs.
That's the good thing when it comes to restoring animals that only went extinct
recently. Much of their DNA is still around. But unlike half-baked claims to restore some
animals, scientists actually have a plan for the great auk. When they finally breed them back into
existence, they want to place them on the Farne Islands, which are located off the
coast of England. The seabirds bred here in the past, and considering the days of cannibalistic
sailors and primitive hunters are over, they might actually be able to start again and flourish.
1: Woolly Rhino The most impressive animal that scientists could
bring back from extinction is the woolly mammoth – followed closely by the woolly rhino. The woolly
mammoth obviously has a more beloved place in the minds of the public, but woolly rhinos are
just as cool and deserve a bit more credit than they get, and they also might make an appearance
around the same time as woolly mammoths. Just recently, the most well-preserved woolly
rhino corpse was found. It was discovered in the melting permafrost of Siberia,
dating back sometime between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago. It died when it was just a juvenile
but is so well-preserved that it almost looks like it could get up and start walking.
80% of the rhino is still intact, including thick hair, organs, and all its limbs.
This kind of exceptional discovery is what will eventually bring the beast back to life.
Scientists even say there's a chance of liquid blood still being somewhere inside its body.
Basically, scientists have all the ingredients they need to Frankenstein a woolly rhino. The only
issue is coming up with the funds and the right equipment to mix all those ingredients together.
Thanks for watching! Which animal would you bring back if you could? Let me know in the comments
below and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already! I’ll see you next time! Bye! :)