'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next

For about seven minutes in 2003, scientists reversed extinction.

The resurrected lineage was the Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), and the last known member of the subspecies, a female named Celia, had died three years earlier.

Scientists had collected DNA from Celia's ear before her death and injected her genetic material into a domesticated goat egg cell with its nucleus removed. The resulting clone — the first and only extinct creature to have been revived at the time — died soon after birth due to a lung defect.

Although that effort failed to produce a healthy animal, "de-extinction" science has advanced dramatically in the past two decades. Technology is no longer a significant hurdle to reviving recently extinct species, and in many cases, we have enough DNA to piece together functional genomes for cloning. The question isn't so much whether we can resurrect lost species but if we should.

Some companies aren't waiting to answer that question. For instance, Colossal BioSciences, a Texas-based bioTechnology and genetic engineering company, plans to bring back three iconic extinct species: the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus; also known as the thylacine) and the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). The ultimate goal for these de-extinction efforts, according to Colossal's website, is to "enrich biodiversity, replenish vital ecological roles and bolster ecosystem resilience."

But a catastrophic outcome cannot be ruled out, other experts say.

"We have this hubris as humans that we can control our technology," Oswald Schmitz, a professor of population and community ecology at Yale University, told Live Science. "I'm not so convinced."