
The idea of resurrecting extinct organisms is alluring; I would love to see one of the strange Cambrian animals like Hallucigenia and Opabinia, feathered dinosaurs, the giant hornless rhino "Walter" and giant sloths.
The "de-extinction" company Colossal Biosciences promises to fulfill that dream, at least for extinct animals like woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), dodos (Raphus cucullatus), and Tasmanian tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus). It has recently been making waves in its quest to de-extinct charismatic fauna. First, it claimed to have developed elephant induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), from which they could "de-extinct" woolly mammoths, then for creating Colossal Woolly Mouse, or the Mammouse, a proof of concept that mammoth-like traits can be engineered into other animals.