Throughout human history, we’ve driven species after species extinct: the passenger pigeon, the Eastern cougar, the dodo… the list goes on. But bringing these lost species back into existence is no longer a fantasy. The real question – is it a good idea?
The Dawn of De-Extinction. Are You Ready? [TED] by Stewart Brand
Video | 20 minutes
“Because the fact is, humans have made a huge hole in nature in the last 10,000 years. We have the ability now, and maybe the moral obligation, to repair some of the damage. Most of that we’ll do by expanding and protecting the populations of endangered species. But some species that we killed off totally we could consider bringing back to a world that misses them.”
The Mammoth Cometh [New York Times] by Nathaniel Rich
Article | 30 minutes
“Bringing extinct animals back to life is really happening – and it’s going to be very, very cool. Unless it ends up being very, very bad.”
Resurrecting the Extinct Frog with a Stomach for a Womb [National Geographic] by Ed Yong
Article | 12 minutes
“Simply put, the mother frog converts her stomach into a womb. She swallows her own eggs and stops making hydrochloric acid in her stomach to avoid digesting her own young. Around 20 to 25 tadpoles hatch inside her and the mucus from their gills continues to keep the acid at bay. While the tadpoles grow over the next six weeks, mum never eats. Her stomach bloats so much that her lungs collapse, forcing her to breath through her skin.”
Hunters Find a Frozen 10,000-Year-Old Baby Woolly Rhino [WIRED] by Nick Stockton
Article | 4 minutes
“Admit it: the littler fella is pretty cute for spending one hundred centuries frozen in the ice, getting chewed on by scavengers.”
Have a Longer Read
- How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction
- The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
- De-Extinction: Bringing Back Mammoths and Dinosaurs
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