# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/61 "2019-06-14T15:34:06Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > As I understood him, there’s no such caveat; species will simply die off if environment doesn’t suit them. That’s what I mean - but I’m not interested in using the machine as a “get a better preserved dead specimen” tool. I’m going to want to bring back something for good. And for profit, if possible. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/62 "2019-06-14T15:44:03Z")
It’s probably a reflection on me that one of the first thoughts I had was “well, I heard \_\_\_\_\_\_ was really tasty.” I mean, it could maybe be sustainably farmed now. I’m not sure what species I’d choose. While preserving species and biodiversity and ecosystem balance is important, the existence of any particular species in and of itself isn’t important to me. Especially a species that I’ve never had a personal interaction with. And, of course, the consequences have to be thought of. Will it upset the current ecosystem? In terms of neanderthals and such, there’s the issue of confusion, emotional upset, discrimination, slavery, being viewed as animals by humans, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/63 "2019-06-14T17:13:29Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > I’ll go with the [Moa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa), because the statue I saw in New Zealand looked really cool. One of the big ones? Or one of the smaller ones, the lawn moa? > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Ooh, there was a one-meter elephant? Okay, that’s my choice. [whine]Yeah, the one mentioned in the OP[/whine]… A bit of my brain wants to switch though, and go for something like the [Dusky Seaside Sparrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusky_seaside_sparrow), just to see how long it takes anyone to notice… ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/64 "2019-06-14T18:06:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. I’d go for Stegosaurus ungulatus, so that we could definitively answer the question: how did those things mate? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/65 "2019-06-14T18:14:51Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I’d go for Stegosaurus ungulatus, so that we could definitively answer the question: how did those things mate? 😃 Going half-serious again, I avoided dinosaurs because I would hate to de-extinct something just to see it go extinct again; I’m not sure the aliens said anything about adapting said creature to the world today. The differences in atmosphere give me serious doubts if any of the animals like that could make it today. In other words I had more issues with Jurassic Park than just the cloning. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/66 "2019-06-14T20:00:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I would ask for the Great Auk. I think Iceland would do a great job of protecting it. > [@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. > [@Tzigone](#): > > It’s probably a reflection on me that one of the first thoughts I had was “well, I heard \_\_\_\_\_\_ was really tasty.” I mean, it could maybe be sustainably farmed now. I’m something of a fan of the Great Auk; and – the things IMO not necessarily irreconcilable – it might possibly have food significance, as well as “nice to have it back” ditto. I believe I’ve read that one of the factors in the Great Auk’s undoing, was that it was good to eat; unlike the Southern Hemisphere’s penguins, which I gather taste vile. I’ve no doubt that **DrDeth** is right, and that the revived Great Auk would thrive, conserved by the Icelanders. Enough maybe for a modest annual auk harvest, to supply up-market restaurants for purveying to diners at fancy prices – after all, puffin is regularly on the menu in Iceland… ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/67 "2019-06-14T20:32:29Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Sylphium Thinking outside the box! (And thank you – I was trying to remember that word a few days ago.) > [@SmartAleq](#): > > Wooly mammoth. I’d love to see a shit ton of those big buggers rampaging around Los Angeles. > [@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). > [@SmartAleq](#): > > 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. But you said you wanted woolly mammoths, not Columbian mammoths… ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/68 "2019-06-14T20:59:05Z")
Decisions, decisions… _[Bison latifrons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_latifrons). [Deinotherium giganteum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinotherium). [Paraceratherium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraceratherium). [Stegodon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegodon). [Titanotylopus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanotylopus). [Gigantopithecus blacki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus). [Thalassocnus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassocnus)._ Give me a couple of years to make up my mind… ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/69 "2019-06-14T22:46:57Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > One of the big ones? Or one of the smaller ones, the lawn moa? Go to your room and think about what you just did. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/70 "2019-06-14T23:23:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I say bring back baluchitheriums. Because elephants have been pretty arrogant and need to be taken down a notch. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Save it until the humpback whales go extinct, because I do NOT want to see Leonard Nimoy in swim trunks again. > [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > Yes, sea scorpions! Then I’ll finally be able to figure out if they are edible. I don’t agree with all the choices, but the reasoning is unquestionable. ---
**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 14, 2019, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/71 "2019-06-14T23:37:43Z")
Another good option–the [Steller’s Sea Cow](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/04/pleistoseacow/522831/). Extinct for less than 300 years. (Oh, the huge manatee!) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/72 "2019-06-15T00:20:45Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Go to your room and think about what you just did. :smack: The first time I read that, I though it was a lawn flamingo joke. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/73 "2019-06-15T00:49:24Z")
dodo bird Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk ---
**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 15, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/74 "2019-06-15T00:53:14Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Sylphium Ooh, good choice! That’s probably the most responsible option. > [@Filbert](#): > > … > [whine]Yeah, the one mentioned in the OP[/whine]… Oops. Uh, yeah, i noticed that… ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/75 "2019-06-15T00:56:42Z")
I want to have a mammoth hunting lodge. Metal, plastic, and gunpowder would be forbidden. If you want to dine on mammoth steak, like your ancestors did, you have to hunt it with a spear, like your ancestors did. (And fend off the predators like your ancestors did. I know the OP said we only get one species, but could we get sabertooth cats or dire wolves also?) ---
**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 15, 2019, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/76 "2019-06-15T01:13:17Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > But you said you wanted woolly mammoths, not Columbian mammoths… [Columbian mammoths were woolly enough for government work!](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rare-mammoth-hair-found-californian-artichoke-farm-180952624/) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/77 "2019-06-15T03:25:17Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > One of the big ones? Or one of the smaller ones, the lawn moa? > > [whine]Yeah, the one mentioned in the OP[/whine]… > > … 3’ tall mini-elephamts? They’d become house pets. And where could we release them back in the wild? Not Crete, it’s nearly a desert now after 1000 years of goats. Now the Channel Islands mammoth could be released, since the islands are mostly parks, but very likely too warm now and the flora may be all wrong. Not to mention not much fresh water. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/78 "2019-06-15T04:34:21Z")
_Variola Major_. Why so serious? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/79 "2019-06-15T07:05:52Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 3’ tall mini-elephamts? They’d become house pets. Yup! Though you’d probably want a few as I bet they’d be social, so you’d need a big yard. They probably wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild in Crete, but they shouldn’t be too hard to catch up to move, and wouldn’t be messing up ecosystems if a few did manage to survive. They’ll be popping into existence there, but they don’t have to stay there if you can work out how to move 'em. I’m trying to be irresponsible responsibly. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480/80 "2019-06-15T09:48:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Now\*\* the Channel Islands mammoth\*\* could be released, since the islands are mostly parks, but very likely too warm now and the flora may be all wrong. Not to mention not much fresh water. (My bolding) – seeing this post, my initial thought was: if that were to be done, the Jersey Zoo at least would have to have a breeding pair – that’s what the place, founded by Gerald Durrell, is all about. Came to mind then: never heard of mammoths in the pre-history of the British Channel Islands… resorted to Google: reference is indeed, to the Californian ditto :o … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-extinctify-a-species/835480.md?page=5)