As cloning technologies improve, the odds of reversing extinction continue to grow. Reviving the passenger pigeon, extinct since 1914, now appears to be a distinct possibility. But a larger question remains, namely how will these “extinction clones” survive in the modern world? If the goal is to make them zoo exhibits, then a few passenger…
Some 13,000 years ago, gigantic animals roamed what is now the United States. Is it not enough to mourn the loss of these animals? Should we attempt to “resurrect” them via programs like the Pleistocene Rewilding? What is the Pleistocene Rewilding? The Pleistocene Rewilding concept was the brainchild of a geoscientist named Paul S. Martin….
In 1920, the last of the “tree lobster” insects seemingly vanished into the dustbin of history. However, unbeknownst to modern science, a small colony of these hand-sized insects managed to survive…on an 1,844 foot tall rock pyramid…in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! Ball’s Pyramid: The Home of the Last Tree Lobsters? This isolated rock…
The latest news from Siberia is that Russian scientists appear to have grown an extinct plant called the narrow-leafed campion using 31,800 year-old seeds buried by ancient squirrels. An Extinct Plant…Brought back to Life? The reviving of the Narrow-Leafed Campion is just the latest in a series of ancient genetic breakthroughs, including the sequencing of…
The ancient Egyptians were crazy about animals…or at least, animal sacrifices. Animal Mummies & Animal Sacrifices? In ancient Egypt, a whole breeding industry existed just to provide citizens with the requisite number of sacrificial victims. Some animals, like the sacred ibis and the baboon, were possibly even driven to regional extinction by this frenzied activity,…