‘Closer than people think’: Woolly Mammoth ‘De-Extinction’ Is Nearing Reality — and We Have No Idea What Happens Next
23rd October 2025
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.