Bringing back ancient animals

[Moontanman]

If you could, lets say you have been granted limited god status, and all you can do is bring back 4 extinct animals in large enough numbers to establish a breeding population, what would they be and why?

 

Anomalocaris, because they are big and look delicious. 

Ichthyosaur, Because I'd like to see how they interact with dolphins. The smaller species.

Liopleurodon, small species, because  i'd like to see them interact with dolphins as well. 

Woolly Mammoth, because I hope they can genetically engineer one the size of a small pony so I can own one. 

  

[Peterkin]

Pig-Footed Bandicoot, - because the world needs more marsupials.

Ibermesornis - because it's blue

Triadobatrachus - an amphibian to replace the frogs we're losing

Aquilops - just to have a nice, herbivorous dinosaur around

They're all very small, so that territory where they can roam free shouldn't be a problem. I always worry, when somebody talks about cloning giant prehistoric animals: Where will you put them, when the elephants and bison have no space? It's better to be extinct than to live in confinement.  

 

[dimreepr]

3 hours ago, Peterkin said:

Aquilops - just to have a nice, herbivorous dinosaur around

They're all very small, so that territory where they can roam free shouldn't be a problem. I always worry, when somebody talks about cloning giant prehistoric animals: Where will you put them, when the elephants and bison have no space? It's better to be extinct than to live in confinement.

The only problem I can see is, it probably posssibly wouldn't be able to eat the local fora; that's had a lot of time evolving ways to avoid being eaten.

Edited October 26, 2021 by dimreepr

[Danijel Gorupec]

Neanderthals, I would like to greet. I kinda hope this might actually happen one day.

T-rex or similar because I romantically hope they were colorful and maybe had a comb.

Dodos, because I am hungry right now and the T-rex reminded me on chicken.

I will keep one choice for the future - possibly to rescue mountain gorillas.

[mistermack]

I would bring back that giant eagle of New Zealand, the Haast's eagle, that was twice the size of a Golden Eagle, and big enough to prey on the Moa which I would also bring back. 

The Moa was nearly twice the size of an Ostrich, which itself would be worth seeing, but to see the Haast's Eagle in action would be really spectacular. 

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, mistermack said:

I would bring back that giant eagle of New Zealand, the Haast's eagle, that was twice the size of a Golden Eagle, and big enough to prey on the Moa which I would also bring back. 

The Moa was nearly twice the size of an Ostrich, which itself would be worth seeing, but to see the Haast's Eagle in action would be really spectacular. 

You'd just bring about mutual destruction, again; whatever we bring back will have to be self sustaining, locally (metaphorically speaking).

In case you were wondering, yes, I'm deliberately sucking the fun out of this thread, it's how I live... 😉

[mistermack]

5 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

You'd just bring about mutual destruction, again;

Actually no, that's wrong. It was the first Maoris that hunted the Moas to extinction, that brought about the end of the Eagle. Before that, there was the usual predator/prey balance.

[dimreepr]

1 minute ago, mistermack said:

Actually no, that's wrong. It was the first Maoris that hunted the Moas to extinction, that brought about the end of the Eagle. Before that, there was the usual predator/prey balance.

But that balance wouldn't exist now, it would be a binary system outside a circular system, doomed to mutual destruction again; you can't sustain an ecosystem that's out of time...

[mistermack]

43 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

But that balance wouldn't exist now

Of course not, but that applies to almost any extinct species that you might bring back. Unless you got rid of the 7.5 billion humans, they could only exist in protected environments like reserves. 

I'd still like to see them though. And the Aurox. I'd like to see what a McDonald burger originally looked like in the wild. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by mistermack
cuz of rong spelin

[dimreepr]

1 minute ago, mistermack said:

Of course not, but that applies to almost any extinct species that you might bring back. Unless you got rid of the 7.5 billion humans, they could only exist in protected environments like reserves. 

I'd still like to see them though. And the Aurox. I'd like to see what a McDonald burger originally looke like in the wild. 

The thing about balance is, we all stay on...

[Peterkin]

4 hours ago, dimreepr said:

posssibly wouldn't be able to eat the local fora

Meh, a fern is a fern. Lots of plants haven't changed since his time. An he'd like something else, we'll re-animate some of its favourites.

Wouldn't you, for such a lovable dino?

1 hour ago, mistermack said:

they could only exist in protected environments like reserves. 

Jurassic parks, yes. Too expensive (Bezos is building a space station, not a petting zoo) expensive, too extensive, too impractical. 

That's why I'd only bring back a few species that could take the place of some recently or soon-to-be extinguished species in the present ecosystem. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Peterkin

[mistermack]

The Haast's Eagle could live quite well on sheep, even if you didn't bring back the Moa. You would have to protect it, and give compensation for stock losses. (and the occasional child). 

The Aurox could be kept like the Bison is now, as a novelty delicacy food. 

The Irish Elk would be good to see as well. Hunters would pay a lot of money for a trophy head with antlers 12 feet wide. Could be a money spinner.

[TheVat]

11 hours ago, Moontanman said:

 

Woolly Mammoth, because I hope they can genetically engineer one the size of a small pony so I can own one. 

  

This sort of undermines the name mammoth.   "Midget mammoth" -- a bit like the oxymoronic "jumbo shrimp. "  

If you bring back one species,  people will just want Moa.  

 

[beecee]

15 hours ago, Moontanman said:

If you could, lets say you have been granted limited god status, and all you can do is bring back 4 extinct animals in large enough numbers to establish a breeding population, what would they be and why?

Adam and Eve....and of course the talking snake! 

[Moontanman]

I think I'd have to trade the anomalocaris for a small species of sauropod, plenty of crustaceans to eat in the ocean already. 

On 10/26/2021 at 8:25 AM, dimreepr said:

But that balance wouldn't exist now, it would be a binary system outside a circular system, doomed to mutual destruction again; you can't sustain an ecosystem that's out of time...

A large part of the subglacial ecosystem still exists, caribou, musk oxen, and smaller animals, you could go ahead and resurrect the woolly rhino, and the aurochs. The northern ecosystem needs these animals to help stop global warming
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2017.0437

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217166