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The truth about de-extinction: is it even possible, and why do it?

Life

The truth about de-extinction: is it even possible, and why do it?

Ambitious projects aim to put dire wolves, woolly mammoths and passenger pigeons back into our ecosystems. But with so many technical and ethical hurdles, what is the real motivation?

Features

AYMTTG A man looks at a display in the Hall of Biodiversity American Museum of Natural History

Life

Why avoiding a sixth mass extinction is easier than it sounds

Leader

Life

Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves

News

A six-and-a-half-centimetre snail is one of the rarest animals at the park. The Giant Magnolia Snail had been thought to have been extinct before living specimens were found in southern Vietnam in 2012.Classified as critically endangered, there are thought to be as few as 300 of the left coiling snail in the world with eight at Longleat and just 56 in European zoos and Safari Parks. Keeper Samantha Peeke has been ensuring they settle in and the snails will soon be able to be seen in the Animal Adventure area of the Park.?They are kept in a sterile environment to protect them, and each has an ID tag. We are hoping they will start breeding which will be incredible for the species. Tom_Anders_GiantSnail

Life

A giant snail that lives up to its name

News

A company called Colossal Biosciences says it has revived an extinct species ? the dire wolf. ?On October 1, 2024, for the first time in human history, Colossal successfully restored a once-eradicated species through the science of de-extinction

Society

Why claims about 'resurrecting' dire wolves are the tip of the iceberg

Comment

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

Life

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

News

Humans

Has a volcanic eruption ever wiped out a species of hominins?

News

Life

De-extinction company claims it has nearly complete thylacine genome

News

Environment

Mega El Niños may have played a part in the Permian mass extinction

News

Last Wrangel Mammoth

Life

The last woolly mammoths on Earth died from bad luck, not inbreeding

A genetic study of woolly mammoths found on an isolated Arctic island shows they reached a stable population that lasted millennia, so were probably wiped out by a random event rather than inbreeding

News

Environment

How dodo de-extinction is helping rescue the extraordinary pink pigeon

Features

Life

Can genetically modifying a rare marsupial save it from extinction?

Analysis

Comment

The best new science fiction books of April 2024

Culture

Life

Is the woolly mammoth really on the brink of being resurrected?

News