Scientists just "de-extincted" the dire wolf. Which species should be revived next?

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Woolly Mammoth

Colossal Biosciences is genetically engineering Asian elephants — their closest living relative — to express mammoth traits like dense fur, thick fat layers, and small ears suited to Arctic cold, using ancient DNA recovered from frozen specimens. The company aims to birth the first calves by 2028 and eventually rewild herds across Siberian tundra, arguing mammoths once trampled trees and compacted snow in ways that kept permafrost frozen, slowing carbon release. Critics counter that the result is really a cold-adapted elephant hybrid, not a true mammoth, and question whether Arctic ecosystems and elephant surrogate mothers are ready for the experiment.

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Woolly Mammoth Colossal Biosciences is genetically engineering Asian elephants — their closest living relative — to express mammoth traits like dense fur, thick fat layers, and small ears suited to Arctic cold, using ancient DNA recovered from frozen specimens. The company aims to birth the first calves by 2028 and eventually rewild herds across Siberian tundra, arguing mammoths once trampled trees and compacted snow in ways that kept permafrost frozen, slowing carbon release. Critics counter that the result is really a cold-adapted elephant hybrid, not a true mammoth, and question whether Arctic ecosystems and elephant surrogate mothers are ready for the experiment.

Dodo The dodo has become de-extinction's most symbolic target: a flightless pigeon relative wiped out within decades of sailors reaching Mauritius in the 1600s, purely through hunting and introduced predators. Colossal Biosciences has sequenced dodo DNA from museum specimens and is using the Nicobar pigeon, its nearest living relative, to identify the genetic differences worth engineering back in. Because bird embryos develop inside hard-shelled eggs, scientists can't clone them like mammals — instead they plan to edit primordial germ cells and transplant them into surrogate birds. Success would let Mauritius reintroduce a living dodo to forests it vanished from centuries ago.

Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was the largest carnivorous marsupial of modern times until the last known individual died in Hobart Zoo in 1936, decades after bounty hunting for allegedly killing livestock drove the species to collapse. Colossal Biosciences and University of Melbourne researchers are using the fat-tailed dunnart, a mouse-sized marsupial, as a genetic template, guided by an unusually well-preserved thylacine genome extracted from a juvenile specimen kept in ethanol. Because marsupials give birth to tiny, underdeveloped young that finish growing in a pouch, some scientists argue thylacine revival is technically more feasible than mammoth or dodo projects, though still years away.

None of these — leave extinction alone Not every scientist — or voter — is convinced de-extinction is worth pursuing. Skeptics point out that roughly one million species are currently at risk of extinction according to UN estimates, and argue the tens of millions of dollars Colossal has raised would save far more biodiversity if spent on habitat protection and anti-poaching efforts instead. There's also a scientific objection: these projects don't produce genetically identical originals, just edited hybrids of living relatives, so calling it 'de-extinction' may overstate what's actually happening. Ecosystems have also changed dramatically since these species vanished, raising questions about whether revived animals could even survive, let alone thrive, in the modern world.

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