Father-and-son scientists George and Hendrik Poinar have helped set the stage in recent decades for a dramatic advance: Resurrecting extinct species.
George led early explorations of the notion before essential technology had been invented. Later, Hendrik and George together pioneered new methods of extracting and sequencing ancient DNA.
To turn those genetic blueprints into living organisms, however, is quite a challenging proposition. One approach is to take a similar existing species and modify individual genes to match its extinct relative. But this of course wouldn’t be an exact match of the original animal.
Another approach could be to use a donor egg from a modern animal but with its DNA replaced by that of the extinct animal.
Here, six of the candidates for de-extinction, and the modern counterparts that could shepherd them into being.
EDITOR’S NOTE: WTF??? Have these people never seen science fiction movies? Read a book? Even a comic book?
