de-extinct

present singular third person de-extincts · participle present de-extincting · participle past de-extincted · past de-extincted

1. neologismtransitivebiologyTo return an extinct species back into the world.

   Revive & Restore, a branch of the Long Now Foundation, is currently attempting to de-extinct the passenger pigeon in a project called The Great Comeback.

   2020, “Life Finds A Way”, in Jonathan Elmore, editor, Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   In 2012, Australian researchers briefly de-extincted an amphibian they dubbed ‘the Lazarus frog’ (Rheobatrachus silus), an unusual creature with one hell of a party trick (to find out what it was, you’ll have to read Chapter 5).

   2016, Helen Pilcher, Bring Back the King: the new science of de-extinction, Bloomsbury Sigma, →ISBN, page 16

   From a technical perspective, de-extincting a Neanderthal would be the easiest task of all, for human reproduction is extremely well understood, and the Neanderthal genome is known.

   2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 308

   A species of wolf that died out some 12,500 years ago lives again as the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal,” according to Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences.

   2025 April 7, Katie Hunt, “Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf”, in CNN

   Synonyms: unextinct