# You can bring back one extinct species - what do you choose? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544 "2010-03-23T22:20:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/101 "2010-03-30T16:41:35Z")
I would bring back [Castoroides ohioensis](http://www.carnivoraforum.com/index.cgi?board=dinosaur&action=print&thread=3458). I’ve always been partial to furry little beavers, but I find the thought of coming (sp?) upon a giant beaver quite intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/102 "2010-03-30T17:20:33Z")
\*Homo neandertalensis \*would be the most intriguing, not only to see if they could hybridize with us (I’d volunteeer:)), but especially to hear their language. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/103 "2010-03-30T17:25:38Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > \*Homo neandertalensis \*would be the most intriguing, not only to see if they could hybridize with us (I’d volunteeer:)), but especially to hear their language. Assuming neanderthals had language ability (I do not know) language is a learned trait. We are not born knowing English or Spanish. We are taught it. As such I suspect neanderthals would speak English (or the language of whatever researcher brought them back). ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/104 "2010-03-30T18:31:46Z")
The missing link. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/105 "2010-03-30T18:51:04Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > The missing link. Which one…? ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/106 "2010-03-30T19:38:50Z")
Ah, that’s easy, one of the extinct species of [giant tortoise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_tortoise) (or, hell, more of the existing animals). The Wikipedia page contains this gem, > [@](#): > > Contrary to popular belief, Charles Darwin never actually managed to bring even a sample of the tortoise back to England because he found it so delicious. While Wikipedia can be flaky, I learned about them from an episode of QI ([transcript](http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/qi/episodes/7/10/)): > [@](#): > > It took 300 years for the giant tortoise to get a scientific or taxonomical name because people kept eating them. People would put them on ships and sail them back home, but by the time they arrived at port in Europe the crew would have eaten the whole lot. Even Charles Darwin and the crew aboard the Beagle ate all the giant tortoises on board. The only descriptions of them are comparing them to chicken, beff, [sic] mutton and butter, and saying they tasted better than all of them. Yeah, silphium was cool at the time, but we have more reliable contraceptives now. If you had animals that tasty you could sell them at any cost, even after factoring in the cost of cloning and the slow growth rate. Velocirators? No way, ICBMs would be cheaper and more effective. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/107 "2010-03-30T20:15:31Z")
> [@Lestrade](#): > > While Wikipedia can be flaky, I learned about them from an episode of QI ([transcript](http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/qi/episodes/7/10/)): > > > [@](#): > > > > It took 300 years for the giant tortoise to get a scientific or taxonomical name because people kept eating them. People would put them on ships and sail them back home, but by the time they arrived at port in Europe the crew would have eaten the whole lot. Even Charles Darwin and the crew aboard the Beagle ate all the giant tortoises on board. The only descriptions of them are comparing them to chicken, beff, [sic] mutton and butter, and saying they tasted better than all of them. Well, really, _nothing_ had a scientific name (at least, not as we know them) until a good 200 years after the Galapagos Islands (and thus, the tortoises) were discovered. So they were only absent a unique name between 1735 (when Linnaeus published his _Systema Naturae_) and 1827 (when Harlin published a description of the “elephant tortoise”, giving it the name of _Testudo_ (now _Geochelone_) _elephantopus_). ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/108 "2010-03-30T20:42:29Z")
> [@Darwins\_Finch](#): > > Well, really, _nothing_ had a scientific name (at least, not as we know them) until a good 200 years after the Galapagos Islands (and thus, the tortoises) were discovered. So they were only absent a unique name between 1735 (when Linnaeus published his _Systema Naturae_) and 1827 (when Harlin published a description of the “elephant tortoise”, giving it the name of _Testudo_ (now _Geochelone_) _elephantopus_). I knew I was tempting fate to post that directly after you, but couldn’t resist. Seriously though, that’s an interesting point. It does rather diminish the romance of the story, but there’s plenty left what with them being used as living food and water stores on ships. Ah, we’re capable of such limitless cruelty. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/109 "2010-04-01T19:37:53Z")
> [@Darwins\_Finch](#): > > Which one…? The one that made the connection earliest. ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/110 "2010-04-01T20:33:30Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > The one that made the connection earliest. Which connection? The most recently extinct common ancestor of Homo Sapiens and its nearest living relative (Tough to pin down, no?) or, as I think most people envision _the missing link_, between Human and non-human Animal? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/111 "2010-04-02T00:06:26Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > P.S. What are the rules of this little experiment? Does it have to be a “known” species, meaning one that we have described from fossils? > If not, then my answer would be “the very first living species”; that would be quite interesting as well. I’ll leave it up to the biologists/zoologists/chemists/physicists to argue over what exactly “the very first living species” means. Well, in the OP I gave all of Earth’s history, so the only prerequisite I think is that we have to know that it existed - so T-Rex is fine, but no dragons. Australopithecus OK, no bigfoot. So, you I suppose could bring back the ‘first species’ (which I understand we currently think was some type of [prokaryote](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokaryote)), although good luck determining when it first became distinct from the primordial protein muck. On the ‘missing link’, the common ancestor of chimps and humans would be a good one (or going back a bit further, the common ancestor of all modern primates). ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/112 "2010-04-02T13:06:27Z")
Another vote for the [T-Rex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_rex). Yeah, I know there have been bigger ones found, like Spinosaurus, but there’s just something about a T-Rex that says, “Yeah, this bad boy should be stomping around in Washington, DC - right now!!”. ---
**Author:** ![Meow\_Max](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@Meow\_Max](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meow_Max)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/113 "2010-04-03T16:42:14Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Have to go with Dodo - I bet they’d be delicious. I want the new family sized meal bucket from KFD 🙂 Imagine the size of the drumsticks! So, which creature would I choose to bring back? Whichever one is the most delicious! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/114 "2010-04-04T23:14:02Z")
Wow! Some fantastic responses! I’m still reading them, but wanted to interject mine… (And funny how many folks want to bring back a bird!) If I really had to bring one individual from a species back, I don’t know if I could do it. I mean, is it really humane to bring back a creature that would live it’s life alone? With that in mind, I’d definitely have to go with an extinct breed of dog, like say the Tahltan Bear Dog; they’re bred to corner bears and fight large cats, but they are still domesticated and do well with other animals. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/115 "2010-04-05T23:37:54Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > I hear rats are not bad, especially served onna stick. Only if you have enough catsup! Or if they’re [coated in toffee](http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Toffee-Rat-Onna-Stick-from-Nanny-Oggs-Cookbook-100635). And at all costs, avoid the green wobbly bit! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kevlaw](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kevlaw/32/2281_2.png) [@kevlaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevlaw)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/116 "2010-04-05T23:45:37Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > I suppose I would want to revive the Most Recent Common Ancestor of H. sapiens, P. troglodytes and P. paniscus. That was my first thought too but, on reflection, a Pterodactyl would be awesomer. ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/117 "2010-04-05T23:47:37Z")
> [@Meow\_Max](#): > > I want the new family sized meal bucket from KFD 🙂 > > Imagine the size of the drumsticks! Dodo was, by all accounts, not a good-tasting bird. They apparently died out not due to hunting by humans but the animals that accompanied humans to Mauritius (cite: [Wikipedia:Dodo#Extinction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo#Extinction)). ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/118 "2010-04-05T23:54:25Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#): > > Thats what I always wondered what we would hope to achieve by cloning some different branch of humanity. We could only really get biological science out of it, because the enculturation wouldn’t be there. Totally off topic, there was a Chinese girl adopted by an Amish couple (we’re very active in the adoption community, so I happened to hear about this). I would love to see & hear how she’s doing. Enculturation, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! As you were, back to the discussion at hand. ---
**Author:** ![Meow\_Max](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@Meow\_Max](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meow_Max)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/119 "2010-04-07T00:49:14Z")
> [@Lestrade](#): > > Dodo was, by all accounts, not a good-tasting bird. They apparently died out not due to hunting by humans but the animals that accompanied humans to Mauritius (cite: [Wikipedia:Dodo#Extinction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo#Extinction)). Ahh yes, but when we genetically engineer them and bring them back, we will add in the all important Bacon genes. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544/120 "2010-04-08T13:30:07Z")
I’d like to bring back the cave man for one day and study him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-bring-back-one-extinct-species-what-do-you-choose/533544.md?page=7)