De-extinction?

[lpetrich]

25 animals that scientists want to bring back from extinction

1. Caspian Tiger
2. Aurochs
3. Carolina Parakeet
4. Cuban Macaw
5. Dodo
6. Woolly Mammoth
7. Labrador Duck
8. Woolly Rhinoceros
9. Heath Hen
10. Ivory-billed Woodpecker
11. Imperial Woodpecker
12. Moa
13. Elephant Bird
14. Pyrenean Ibex
15. Quagga
16. Chinese River Dolphin (Baiji)
17. Tasmanian Tiger
18. Irish Elk
19. Caribbean Monk Seal
20. Huia
21. Moho
22. Steller's Sea Cow
23. Passenger Pigeon
24. Gastric-brooding Frog
25. Great Auk

Some other possibilities:
Giant ground sloth
Glyptodont (giant armadillo)
Dire wolf
Sabertooth cat

Lots of  Charismatic megafauna, it must be conceded.

All these species became extinct in the Holocene or shortly before, and we have been able to get good DNA samples for some of them. But before that, it does not seem possible. We won't be able to bring back any of the (non-avian) dinosaurs.

 

[lpetrich]

Scientists Plan to 'De-Extinct' a Big Ancient Cow -- How to Bring Back the Auroch? : News : Nature World News, Wild supercows return to Europe - CNN Aurochsen were wild oxen, the wild ancestors of domestic bovines.

From the first link,

One of them is Operation Taurus. Telegraph notes that the program has selectively bred 300 calves with aurochs DNA through something called back-breeding. They selected breeds of cattle which have certain auroch characteristics, and each generation of calves may get closer to the original aurochs in appearance, behavior and genetic makeup.

There are a lot of cattle breeds that the scientists are using which have characteristics closest to the aurochs. These include the Maremmana from Italy and the Podolica and Busha breeds from the Balkans.

Donato Matassino from the Operation Taurus said they have the highest percentage of aurochs genetic material. Though he said we may not be able to create aurochs that are 100-percent like the original.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Extinct Eurasian Wild Aurochs | Genetics | Sci-News.com, Tauros Programme — Rewilding Europe -- for making an aurochs approximation by selective breeding, starting from some of the more aurochs-like breeds of domestic bovines.

Rewilding Europe – Making Europe a Wilder Place also mentions rewilding horses and European bison.


Revive & Restore | Genetic Rescue to Enhance Biodiversity
Is working on protecting horseshoe crabs and restoring black-footed ferrets.

In the United States, one species of horseshoe crab (Limulus sp.) is harvested annually in huge numbers by the pharmaceutical industry and bled alive, its blood used to create the biomedical test, Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL). LAL is the gold standard for endotoxin testing in vaccines and injectable biomedical devices (human and pets). Every drug certified by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration must be tested using LAL. Global demand for this testing process is very high and growing. In the U.S., estuaries like Delaware Bay – where Horseshoe crabs go to spawn each spring – currently support only one third the population that habitat models predict they should.

A synthetic alternative, known as recombinant factor C (rFC), was developed approximately 15 years ago but has not achieved sufficient market penetration to supplant the bleeding of horseshoe crabs by any significant amount. Understanding exactly why that is the case remains a mystery that Revive & Restore is trying to solve.

For the heath hen, passenger pigeon, and woolly mammoth, the R&R people are doing genetic engineering on the genomes of close relatives: the prairie chicken, band-tailed pigeon, and Asian elephant.