# De-extinctify a species **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 13, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480 "2019-06-13T15:58:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/21 "2019-06-13T17:51:50Z")
Mezozoic critters, mainly, so I can [Dine in the land before Time, Moon 14!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DworRueQh4E) ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/22 "2019-06-13T18:05:43Z")
It may be wildly irresponsible, but I want to settle it once and for all - feathers or no feathers? De-extinctify yourself, T-Rex! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/23 "2019-06-13T18:06:00Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Now that’s the kind of irresponsible behaviour I was expecting 😃 Variola major. Mwahahahahaha!! ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/24 "2019-06-13T18:09:23Z")
You want irresponsible? How about the Rocky Mountain locust? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/25 "2019-06-13T18:09:38Z")
I’ll go with the [Moa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa), because the statue I saw in New Zealand looked really cool. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/26 "2019-06-13T18:10:24Z")
Passenger Pigeon, Tasmanian Tiger, Dodo, Giant Moa, basically anything that humans killed off, not creatures that were otherwise naturally selected against are fine by me. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/27 "2019-06-13T18:11:40Z")
Giant ground sloth. One of the largest land mammals ever, and it grew bone armor in it’s skin. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/28 "2019-06-13T18:25:00Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > I’d use it to bring back the Thylacine. I’d love to see one in person. Yes, one of my top choices also, and it wouldn’t upset the environment. There is a small possibility that it is still around. I would ask for the Great Auk. I think Iceland would do a great job of protecting it. The Dodo would be a decent choice, but I dont know how well Mauritius would do in protecting it. Mammal? Stellers Sea Cow. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/29 "2019-06-13T18:38:32Z")
> [@Dahnlor](#): > > You wouldn’t find any, though, as Los Angeles was not where they lived. You would probably prefer [Mastodons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon). > > I’m tempted to choose [Aurochs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs), as they would probably the most boring of all extinct species to resurrect. Right. They have sorta back created the aurochs. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/30 "2019-06-13T19:11:39Z")
Mammoth, baby. It’s a totem animal. Some of you know why. Wishing for really ancient things? Be ready to see them die out from environmental disjunction. It’s got to be able to function at an oxygen partial pressure around 20% or so. That leaves out a LOT of animals during different epochs. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/31 "2019-06-13T19:35:23Z")
_Homo Sapiens._ I would reserve the use until we go extinct. After that, a special mechanism would activate the De-extinctify. This would involve a method of figuring out how to trigger it after we’re gone. Like a dead man mechanism of some sort. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/32 "2019-06-13T19:36:03Z")
The oceans aren’t terrifying enough so how about Dunkleosteus: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkleosteus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkleosteus) That or Sea Scorpions. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/33 "2019-06-13T19:40:51Z")
> [@campp](#): > > _Homo Sapiens._ I would reserve the use until we go extinct. After that, a special mechanism would activate the De-extinctify. Humans are such fuck-ups that they’d just go extinct AGAIN. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/34 "2019-06-13T19:43:30Z")
The great auk. Habitat is going to be a major problem for a lot of the current suggestions. There are issues with the ocean as well, but I think the auks would stand a much better chance of surviving long term than the mammoth. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/35 "2019-06-13T19:46:50Z")
> [@naita](#): > > The great auk. Habitat is going to be a major problem for a lot of the current suggestions. There are issues with the ocean as well, but I think the auks would stand a much better chance of surviving long term than the mammoth. Yes, I agree, or the Tasmanian tiger aka thylacine. Do you know that the Great Auk was the first “penguin”? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/36 "2019-06-13T19:55:15Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Mammoth, baby. It’s a totem animal. Some of you know why. > > Wishing for really ancient things? Be ready to see them die out from environmental disjunction. It’s got to be able to function at an oxygen partial pressure around 20% or so. That leaves out a LOT of animals during different epochs. I’m sort of hoping we might see mammoths de-extinctified in real life. Every so often someone digs one up with intact flesh and DNA. Replace the nucleus of an elephant egg with mammoth DNA, and maybe we could grow mammoths. I don’t think the science is quite up to it, yet, but it’s not our of reach. Of course, there will be issues with sad, lonely baby herd animals. So maybe it’s a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/37 "2019-06-13T20:07:29Z")
For the sake of the hypothetical I’ll go pretty mundane with something that would be cool but not devastatingly disruptive–the [Carolina parakeet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_parakeet). ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/38 "2019-06-13T20:26:48Z")
My first thought was the Dodo, but they’d probably go extinct again in no time, like someone mentioned above. So I’m gonna go with ivory-billed woodpecker. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/39 "2019-06-13T20:45:18Z")
> [@Dahnlor](#): > > You wouldn’t find any, though, as Los Angeles was not where they lived. You would probably prefer [Mastodons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon). That’s gonna be a big old shock to all the people who’ve pieced together and mounted multiple examples of the [Columbian Mammoth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayPWtrjS6g) from bones found in the tar pits at La Brea, which is indeed in Los Angeles. Heck, it’s a big old shock to me considering I’ve been to the tar pits museum on multiple occasions and always have to spend quite a bit of time standing with the curved ends of the tusks of the 16 foot tall mammoth skeleton in the main hall pointed at either side of my head. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/40 "2019-06-13T20:45:33Z")
I think those giant ferns (or whichever plant species was the predominant organism responsible) that ended up becoming oil would be a good candidate. I don’t know whether or not such a species could sequester enough CO2 to make a difference in fighting global warming, but it probably wouldn’t hurt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480.md?page=3)