de-extinction

English

Etymology

From de- +‎ extinction.

Noun

de-extinction (usually uncountable, plural de-extinctions)

  1. (biology, neologism) The process of returning an extinct species back into the world.
    • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 309:
      Even this more limited ambition, however, speaks eloquently of the rapid progress being made in the area of de-extinction.
    • 2020, “Life Finds A Way”, in Jonathan Elmore, editor, Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN:
      The concept of de-extinction is fascinating in much the same way that the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World are.
    • 2025 April 7, Katie Hunt, “Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf”, in CNN‎[1]:
      “We aren’t trying to bring something back that’s 100% genetically identical to another species. Our goal with de-extinction is always create functional copies of these extinct species. We were focusing on identifying variants that we knew would lead to one of these key traits,” Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer told CNN.

Derived terms

See also

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