Board Thread:Fossil Fuels/@comment-50.81.142.215-20141217204601/@comment-17754282-20141218231750

Not when its size would require it to be fed large dolphins or small whales. It just wouldn't work.

It's hard to justify bringing back any extinct species when so many others are on the brink of extinction. The South China Tiger, for example, is classified as "Extinct in the Wild" due to the fact that no sightings have been made in its natural habitat for decades. Populations in zoos still exist and there is a breeding program but evidence suggests that some are cross-breeds with other kinds of Tigers while others are clearly inbred due to poor management of zoological populations in China. This Tiger's only hope may end up being cloning. The situation is even worse for the Yangtze River Dolphin which doesn't even have a captive population to fall back on - if any of them are left (and there don't appear to be) they are likely "Functionally extinct" - beyond the point where the population could possibly recover. The Pinta Island Tortoise may well have followed this path with the death of "Lonesome George" and the Northern White Rhinoceros is headed towards the end, like its relative, the Western Black Rhinoceros, which was declared extinct in 2011.

As fun as it is to speculate on the possibility of bringing back extinct species from millions of years ago, the duty of science must first be to buoy up the populations of animals that are on their way out due to human action. Once they are safe, attentions can be turned to extinct animals, though ones only recently extinct, such as the Thylacine, the Lesser Bilby, the Toolache Wallaby, the Quagga, the Moa and the Dodo.

Fun fact - The Pyrenean Ibex, which became extinct in 2000, has the unique distinction of being the first animal ever to become "Un-Extinct" when, in 2009, a clone of it was born alive. Unforunately she died about seven minutes later, therefore giving the Pyrenean Ibex a second unique distinction - it is the only species to have become extinct twice.