1.Can lost species ever become un-extinct? In the 1993 film "Jurassic Park," dinosaurs are cloned back to life after their DNA is discovered still intact within the bellies of ancient mosquitoes preserved in amber. While the science of cloning is still in its infancy, many scientists now believe it's only a matter of time before extinct animals again walk the Earth.
To successfully clone an extinct animal, scientists need to find animal DNA that is almost entirely intact, so some species will make better candidates for resurrection than others. For instance, recently extinct animals that have been preserved in museums make good candidates, as do ancient animals that were preserved in permafrost during the last ice age.
Because of the sheer amount of time that has passed, dinosaurs make unlikely candidates. A real-life Jurassic Park is probably best reserved for the imagination, but a real-life Pleistocene Park? Well, that's another story. Here's our list of 14 extinct animals that could be resurrected, thanks to cloning.
2.Early in 2011, Japanese scientists announced that they planned to clone a woolly mammoth within five years. The clock is ticking, but with a little luck these ice age behemoths may soon become the first inhabitants of the world's first zoo for extinct animals.
Mammoths make particularly good candidates for resurrection because they went extinct so recently and because many intact specimens have been found frozen in the Arctic tundra. Furthermore, because mammoths are so closely related to a living species — elephants — scientists may be able to simplify the process by having a living elephant give birth to a mammoth.
3.Declared "functionally extinct" as recently as 2006, the Baiji River dolphin became the first cetacean to go extinct in modern times due primarily to human influence. Because of its recent extinction, however, DNA can still be easily extracted from remains. In fact, efforts to retrieve and store the animal's DNA are under way.
Like with many extinct species, however, the question remains about whether the Baiji River dolphin would have a home to return to after being resurrected. The Yangtze River system, where this dolphin was found, remains heavily polluted.
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