Extinct Species: Pyrenean Ibex
The Pyrenean ibex is possibly the only extinct animal that has successfully been brought back to life — though it only lasted for a few minutes. The last of the animals died out in 2000, but three years later scientists used its frozen cells to clone a calf.
The most famous example is the dodo. While the first Aldabra rail is technically a different species than the second rail, the fact that two flightless birds evolved in almost the same manner is remarkable. An entire ecosystem had to regenerate after the ocean wiped out all of flora and fauna.
According to the experts, ten percent of plants and animals will disappear by 2050 – a number rising up to 27 percent by 2100.
Wild animals such as pandas and elephants are likely to become extinct as soon as 2025.
Tardigrades have been around a long time.
Fossils date their existence on Earth to more than 500 million years ago. This means tardigrades have survived the planet's last five mass extinction events.
In 2003, researchers used cloning to bring back the bucardo, a species of wild goat, using a modern goat as a surrogate parent and egg donor. The baby bucardo, the only extinct species to ever be cloned, died after only seven minutes because of a lung malformation.
It's not possible to bring back the dodo, even if it becomes possible to build a bird with a dodo genome. Beyond behavior, the dodo proxy must survive in a world that is significantly different from that of more than 300 years ago, when the dodo went extinct.
At the turn of the 21st century, Australian palaeontologist Mike Archer made headlines around the world when he announced he had extracted DNA from a preserved thylacine specimen – a seemingly extraordinary feat for the time – and would produce a Tassie tiger within just 10 years.
It's not possible. The limit of DNA survival, which we'd need for de-extinction, is probably around one million years or less. Dinosaurs had been gone for a very long time by then.
Similar to previous projects, resurrecting the iconic bird requires huge advances in genetic engineering, stem cell biology, artificial wombs, and animal husbandry. Whether they can fit into a whole new world—300 years later—is hotly debated.
1 No one has ever cloned a human being, though scientists have cloned animals other than Dolly, including dogs, pigs, cows, horses and cats. Part of the reason is that cloning can introduce profound genetic errors, which can result in early and painful death.
Scientists are trying to resurrect the dodo – centuries after the bird famously went extinct. The list of extinct species that genetic engineering company Colossal wants to bring back to life is growing. The latest addition: the dodo.
The dodo was extinct by 1681, the Réunion solitaire by 1746, and the Rodrigues solitaire by about 1790. The dodo is frequently cited as one of the most well-known examples of human-induced extinction and also serves as a symbol of obsolescence with respect to human technological progress.
After stimulating the egg to begin to divide, an embryo would be created that has the same nuclear DNA as the person being cloned. Under the AHR Act, it is illegal to knowingly create a human clone, regardless of the purpose, including therapeutic and reproductive cloning.
On Dec. 27, 2002, Brigitte Boisselier held a press conference in Florida, announcing the birth of the first human clone, called Eve.
Dolly the Sheep was announced to the word with a paper published in 1997, in the journal Nature, succinctly titled “Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells”.
There are two main reasons. First, crocodiles can live for a very long time without food. Second, they lived in places that were the least affected when the asteroid hit Earth.
Variables such as temperature, food sources, and oxygen levels are all factors that might impact dinosaur survival. Because dinosaurs lived in much warmer climates millions of years ago, many experts doubt they could even survive today.
Another specimen had a recorded lifespan of 374 years. The tubeworm Escarpia laminata that lives in deep sea cold seeps regularly reaches the age of between 100 and 200 years, with some individuals determined to be more than 300 years old. It is possible some may live for over 1000 years.
Colossal Biosciences is on a quest to bring back extinct animal species. In the past year and a half, the company has announced plans to recreate the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger. On February 2, 2023, the Texas-based startup added the dodo bird to its de-extinction list.
Bowhead Whale
Bowhead whales can live for over 200 years, which is longer than any other mammal. It's not always easy to tell their age, though, as they spend their lives in the Arctic and sub-Arctic and can outlive the researchers that study them.
On Dec. 27, 2002, the group announced that the first cloned baby — named Eve — had been born the day before.