Is It Possible to Clone an Extinct Animal? The Shocking Truth
In 2023, scientists extracted intact cells from a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth frozen in Siberian permafrost — and some of those cells showed signs of biological activity. That’s not science fiction. That happened.
Most people assume extinct means gone forever. But that assumption is now being challenged by real laboratories with real funding, real CRISPR gene-editing tools, and real timelines. Parts of Jurassic Park aren’t fantasy anymore. What scientists are actually doing right now would make your head spin — and it’s happening much faster than you’ve been told.
In this article, you’ll discover the real science behind whether it’s possible to clone an extinct animal — what’s actually been achieved, which species are closest to coming back, and why some of the world’s top scientists are both thrilled and terrified by where this is heading.
Before we dive in — if you love reading about the world’s weirdest animals, you’re going to love what’s coming next. Nature is already stranger than fiction — and de-extinction is about to make it stranger still.
What Does “Cloning an Extinct Animal” Actually Mean?
Before anything else — let’s make sure we’re talking about the same thing. Because “cloning” and “de-extinction” are not the same process, and the difference matters a lot.
De-extinction is the scientific process of reviving a species that no longer exists. That sounds simple. It isn’t. Scientists are actually using three completely different methods — and each one has different strengths, different limits, and different results.
Here’s the part the movies never explain: true cloning requires a living, intact cell. De-extinction often works with ancient DNA that’s been degraded, broken, and scattered across millions of fragments. The real science is messier, harder, and honestly more impressive than anything Hollywood has shown you.
Cloning vs. De-Extinction What’s the Actual Difference?
True cloning (the “Dolly the sheep” method) takes the nucleus from a living cell and inserts it into an empty egg cell. You need a complete, viable cell to do it. That rules out anything dead for more than a few decades.
De-extinction works differently. Scientists extract whatever DNA survives, sequence it, fill in the gaps using a living relative’s genome, and then use gene editing to rebuild the lost traits. It’s not a copy — it’s a reconstruction. The difference matters enormously for what’s actually possible.
The Three Scientific Methods Being Used Right Now
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT): The Dolly method. Works only with recently preserved cells — a narrow window, but it’s how the first de-extinction ever happened.
CRISPR gene editing: The current frontrunner. Scientists copy key genes from an extinct species into the DNA of a living relative. You don’t get the original animal back — you get a living animal carrying the extinct species’ most important traits.
Back-breeding: Selectively breeding living animals to bring back traits lost when a related species went extinct. Slower, but it requires no ancient DNA at all.
How Does De-Extinction Science Actually Work?
Here’s where it gets genuinely mind-bending. The science behind bringing back extinct animals isn’t one process — it’s several, and each one sounds like it belongs in a Marvel movie.
Think of CRISPR like spellcheck for DNA. Instead of flagging a misspelled word, it finds a specific sequence in a strand of genetic code and replaces it with something different. Scientists can copy mammoth genes — the ones that gave mammoths their thick fur, cold-resistant blood, and extra fat stores — and paste them directly into Asian elephant DNA. According to research published in Cell in 2015, Dr. George Church’s lab at Harvard did exactly this, successfully inserting 14 woolly mammoth genes into elephant cells.
Ancient DNA cloning is harder. Scientists extract DNA from a frozen specimen, sequence it — meaning they map out its complete genetic alphabet — and then try to fill in the gaps using the closest living relative’s genome. Think of it like a puzzle where half the pieces are missing, and you’re using a similar puzzle from a different box to guess what the missing pieces look like.
What Is CRISPR and Why Is It a Game-Changer for De-Extinction?
CRISPR-Cas9 was originally a natural immune system in bacteria. Scientists figured out how to repurpose it as a molecular cutting tool. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery, which tells you how significant it actually is.
For de-extinction, CRISPR changed everything. Before it, editing a genome was like rewriting a book one character at a time with a typewriter. CRISPR is the find-and-replace function. Fast, precise, and scalable.
Why Dinosaur DNA Is Gone Forever (And What That Means)
DNA has a half-life of approximately 521 years, according to a landmark 2012 study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B by Allentoft and colleagues. That means every 521 years, half of DNA’s chemical bonds break down. After roughly one million years, DNA is entirely gone.
Dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. Their DNA has been completely destroyed for tens of millions of years. Jurassic Park, as much as we love it, is pure fantasy — not because the science is bad, but because the raw material simply doesn’t exist anywhere on Earth.
DID YOU KNOW? DNA has a half-life of approximately 521 years. Dinosaur DNA — at least 66 million years old — has been completely gone for tens of millions of years. Jurassic Park is a great movie. It is not a scientific roadmap. (Source: Allentoft et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2012)
6 Shocking Facts About Cloning Extinct Animals You Probably Didn’t Know
Ready for the part that sounds completely made up — but isn’t? Here are six facts about cloning extinct animals that most people have never heard.
- The First De-Extinction Already Happened And Nobody Really Noticed
The Pyrenean ibex, a subspecies of wild Spanish goat, went officially extinct in January 2000 when the last individual was found dead under a fallen tree. Three years later, in 2003, scientists cloned it using frozen cells from that last animal. A live kid was born — making it the first species ever brought back from extinction. It died seven minutes later from a lung defect. Scientists had technically achieved de-extinction. For seven minutes.
- Woolly Mammoth DNA Has Actually Been Found Intact
In 2023, scientists recovered remarkably well-preserved DNA from a mammoth specimen frozen in Siberian permafrost. Cold temperatures slow DNA degradation dramatically — permafrost acts like a natural freezer, preserving genetic material for tens of thousands of years. This is why mammoths are the best candidate for de-extinction of any ancient animal: the DNA is actually there to work with.
- A Real Company Is Already Engineering a Mammoth-Elephant Hybrid
Colossal Biosciences, founded in 2021 by geneticist George Church and entrepreneur Ben Lamm, has raised over $225 million and is actively editing Asian elephant DNA with woolly mammoth genes. Their stated target: a live birth of a mammoth-elephant hybrid calf by the early 2030s. This is not a university experiment. This is a funded, staffed, deadline-driven company.
- The Gastric Brooding Frog Was Almost Brought Back
This Australian frog — extinct since 1983 — had a genuinely bizarre superpower: it swallowed its own fertilised eggs, turned its stomach into a womb, and gave birth through its mouth. If you think that sounds strange, you should read about what poison dart frogs can actually do — nature’s chemical defences are in a league of their own. Australian scientists extracted DNA from preserved frog specimens and created early-stage embryos that survived for several days before the project stalled due to DNA quality issues.
- The Passenger Pigeon Project Is Rewriting a Living Bird’s Genome
The passenger pigeon once flew in flocks so enormous they darkened the sky for days. The last individual died in a Cincinnati zoo in 1914. Now, the nonprofit Revive & Restore is editing the genome of the band-tailed pigeon — the closest living relative — inserting passenger pigeon DNA to recreate the lost species gene by gene. The project is ongoing and actively publishing results.
- Recently Extinct Species Are the Easiest Candidates
Species that vanished in the last 100–200 years left behind museum specimens, frozen tissue samples, and sometimes even taxidermied skins with viable DNA still trapped inside. The Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, the great auk — these went extinct recently enough that DNA survives in collections around the world. The older the extinction, the harder the problem.
Speaking of strange survival strategies in the animal kingdom — did you know there’s a lizard that shoots blood from its eyes as a defence mechanism? The animals scientists want to clone are just as bizarre. Keep reading.
The Extinct Species Scientists Most Want to Bring Back
Not all extinct animals are equal candidates for de-extinction. Some are close. Some are possible. And some are so controversial they make scientists genuinely nervous.
The Ones That Could Actually Happen in Our Lifetimes
Woolly Mammoth — The most funded de-extinction project on the planet. Colossal Biosciences is targeting a mammoth-elephant hybrid calf in the early 2030s. The DNA exists. The technology exists. The money exists. Whether it all comes together on schedule is another question.
Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) — Extinct since 1936. Colossal Biosciences is also running a thylacine project, partnering with the University of Melbourne, which holds a preserved thylacine pup in a jar of alcohol dated to 1866. High-quality DNA has already been extracted and sequenced. Of all the de-extinction projects currently running, this one may be the most scientifically advanced.
Gastric Brooding Frog — The Australian team has the DNA. They’ve made embryos. The challenge is finding a suitable surrogate species. Active research continues. Nature’s most toxic species — like the hooded pitohui, the world’s most poisonous bird — survived because of extreme biological adaptations. The gastric brooding frog was no different.
The Ones That Remain Science Fiction (For Now)
Saber-Tooth Tiger — Extinct for roughly 10,000 years. DNA may survive in permafrost specimens, but no complete genome has been recovered. Technically possible in theory; practically very difficult today.
Dodo Bird — Extinct since the 1680s. Museum specimens around the world contain dodo DNA. A research team at the University of California Santa Cruz sequenced a near-complete dodo genome in 2022. A de-extinction project is genuinely plausible — the closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon.
Neanderthal — This is where things get genuinely uncomfortable. Harvard geneticist George Church has publicly discussed the theoretical possibility of Neanderthal de-extinction using a human surrogate. The science may eventually allow it. The ethics? Deeply unresolved. Most scientists who’ve addressed it publicly say we should not, regardless of whether we could.
The Neanderthal conversation isn’t really about DNA. It’s about whether some knowledge should come with a pause button.
DID YOU KNOW? The last known Tasmanian tiger died in a Hobart zoo on September 7, 1936 — reportedly because a keeper forgot to let it back inside during a cold night. Scientists are now trying to bring it back using DNA from a pup preserved in alcohol at the Melbourne Museum since 1866. (Source: Colossal Biosciences / University of Melbourne)
How Close Are We Really? A Real-World Comparison
Think of it like GPS navigation. Scientists know the destination. They have a rough route. But the road is still partly unpaved — and a few bridges haven’t been built yet.
Here’s what cloning a mammoth actually looks like, step by step, in plain English:
- Sequence the mammoth genome from frozen DNA, filling gaps using the Asian elephant genome
- Identify the key mammoth traits — cold-resistant hemoglobin, thick subcutaneous fat, dense fur, small ears
- Edit those traits into Asian elephant DNA using CRISPR
- Implant the edited embryo into a surrogate elephant, or — if the technology matures — an artificial womb
- Wait 22 months for gestation, since elephants have the longest pregnancy of any land animal
What you get at the end is not a pure woolly mammoth. It’s an elephant carrying mammoth traits — cold resistance, fat storage, fur. Functionally mammoth-like. Genetically a hybrid. Some scientists call it a “mammophant.” Colossal calls it a de-extincted mammoth. The distinction matters scientifically, even if the animal wandering across Arctic tundra wouldn’t know the difference.
Here’s a useful comparison. The Pando tree in Utah — a single quaking aspen organism that has survived for over 80,000 years — shows just how tenacious life can be when conditions align. Scientists believe the mammoth, given the right genetic conditions and environment, could be just as resilient. The challenge isn’t survival. It’s getting the animal there in the first place.
Could a real-life Jurassic Park happen? Not with dinosaurs — the DNA is gone, full stop. But a Pleistocene Park with mammoth-like animals roaming Siberian grasslands? Colossal Biosciences says the early 2030s. Most independent scientists say that timeline is optimistic. But almost none say it’s impossible.
What Experts and Scientists Actually Say About De-Extinction
This is the part scientists don’t fully agree on — and that disagreement is more interesting than any press release.
George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences, argues that mammoth de-extinction isn’t just possible — it’s ecologically urgent. His position: mammoths would restore Arctic grasslands, trample snow to expose frozen soil to cold air, and slow the thaw of permafrost. Since permafrost stores roughly twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a functioning mammoth population could theoretically serve as a climate intervention. That’s not a small claim.
Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore, has a more focused argument: the passenger pigeon project is scientifically sound because we have the genome, we have the living relative, and we have the gene-editing tools. He’s been working on it for over a decade.
The Scientists Who Say “Slow Down”
Beth Shapiro, professor at the University of California Santa Cruz and one of the world’s leading ancient DNA experts, takes a more cautious position. In her book How to Clone a Mammoth, she argues that the resurrected animal will never be genetically identical to the original — it will be a functional approximation. That matters, she says, because we’d be releasing a novel animal into ecosystems we don’t fully understand.
Conservation biologists raise a harder question: the money funding de-extinction projects could be used to protect species that are critically endangered right now. The choice isn’t just scientific. It’s about priorities.
What surprised scientists most wasn’t the technical barriers to de-extinction — it was how quickly those barriers started falling.
Should We Actually Do This? What De-Extinction Means for You and the Planet
Here’s the question nobody agrees on — and it’s more complicated than it sounds.
The case for bringing back extinct animals is genuinely compelling. Keystone species — animals that shape entire ecosystems — leave gaps when they disappear. Mammoths maintained Arctic grasslands for thousands of years. Their absence changed the landscape. Wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone in the 1990s triggered a cascade of ecological changes that restored rivers, increased biodiversity, and stabilised the entire park. A functional mammoth population in Siberia could theoretically do something similar, on a much larger scale.
The case against is equally serious. A reintroduced animal carries unknown variables. Its gut bacteria, its parasites, its behavioural patterns — none of these can be fully reconstructed from DNA. An animal released into a modern ecosystem might carry pathogens that living wildlife have no immunity to. It might outcompete existing endangered species. Consider how complex existing ecosystems already are — underwater volcanoes alone reshape ocean life in ways scientists are still mapping. Adding a novel apex species on land is an order of magnitude more unpredictable.
There’s also the animal welfare question nobody talks about enough: what is the experience of being the first of your kind, raised in a lab, with no parents of your species, in a world your instincts were not built for?
Is de-extinction possible? Yes — for some species, under the right conditions. The harder question — the one scientists, ethicists, and governments are now actively arguing about — is whether we should. “Possible” and “wise” have never been the same thing.
DID YOU KNOW? George Church of Harvard University argues that woolly mammoths could help fight climate change. His theory: mammoths would trample snow and expose frozen soil to cold air, slowing the thaw of Arctic permafrost — which currently stores roughly twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. (Source: Colossal Biosciences / NOAA)
Enjoyed this? You’ll also want to read about animals that change gender — because nature’s biological surprises don’t stop at extinction and rebirth.
Final Thoughts
Remember those mammoth cells that showed signs of biological activity after 52,000 years? That wasn’t a headline from a science fiction novel. That was real science, in a real lab, producing a real result.
Whether it’s possible to clone an extinct animal is no longer really the question. The answer — for some species, under the right conditions — is yes. The harder question, the one scientists, ethicists, and governments are now actively arguing about, is whether we should. “Possible” and “wise” have never been the same thing.
Which species do you think should come back first — and which one would terrify you most? Drop your answer in the comments below.
Want to keep exploring weird science? Start here: 30 of the Weirdest Animals on Earth — and see just how strange life already is before we start bringing back the extinct ones.
What is de-extinction?
De-extinction is the scientific process of reviving a species that no longer exists, using recovered DNA, gene-editing tools like CRISPR, or selective breeding from living relatives. It’s a real, actively funded field. The first brief successful de-extinction was the Pyrenean ibex in 2003 — the cloned animal survived for seven minutes before dying of a lung defect.
Is it possible to clone an extinct animal?
Yes — to a degree. It depends entirely on how old the species is and whether viable DNA still survives. Species extinct within the last few hundred years, like the thylacine or passenger pigeon, are realistic candidates. Ancient species like dinosaurs are not — their DNA has completely degraded over 66 million years and simply no longer exists.
Can we bring back extinct animals using CRISPR?
CRISPR is currently the most promising tool scientists have. It lets researchers copy an extinct species’ key genes into the DNA of a living relative — editing a living animal to carry the traits of the extinct one. This is exactly what Colossal Biosciences is doing with Asian elephants, inserting woolly mammoth genes to create a cold-adapted hybrid.
Could Jurassic Park actually happen?
Any location above the Arctic Circle at 66.5°N experiences at least one day of midnight sun. This includes northern Norway, Iceland, northern Finland and Sweden, northern Alaska, Greenland, and parts of northern Canada. Norway has the most famous and accessible examples — particularly Tromsø and Svalbard — which is why it has become synonymous with this phenomenon globally.
How long does DNA last?
DNA has a half-life of about 521 years, meaning half its chemical bonds break down every 521 years. After roughly one million years, DNA is entirely gone. This is why woolly mammoth DNA, preserved in Arctic permafrost for up to 50,000 years, can still be recovered — while dinosaur DNA, 66 million years old, cannot. (Source: Allentoft et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2012)
What was the first extinct animal to be cloned?
The Pyrenean ibex — a subspecies of Spanish wild goat that went extinct in 2000 — was cloned in 2003 using frozen cells from the last living individual. The cloned animal was born alive but died within minutes due to a lung defect. It remains the only de-extinction attempt that produced a live birth.
Is cloning extinct animals ethical?
This is genuinely debated among scientists. Supporters argue it can restore ecosystems and reverse human-caused extinctions. Critics say the funding and effort should protect species alive and endangered right now, and that reintroduced animals could disrupt existing ecosystems in unpredictable ways. There is no consensus — which is exactly what makes the conversation worth having.
Which extinct animals could realistically be brought back soon?
The most realistic near-term candidates are the woolly mammoth (Colossal Biosciences targets the early 2030s), the Tasmanian tiger (active project at the University of Melbourne with sequenced DNA), and the passenger pigeon (ongoing gene-editing project at Revive & Restore). The dodo and gastric-brooding frog are also being actively studied. While you’re thinking about extraordinary animal biology, see also how sharks survive without bones or lungs — ancient species have always found ways to beat the odds.
