Ever since the movie Jurassic Park premiered, the public have wondered if it will ever be possible to bring back extinct species, and perhaps more-so, if we can, should we? With each new discovery of ancient DNA from Neanderthals, woolly mammoths, the dodo bird, and other extinct species over the past two decades the possibility seemed to inch closer, and now with the advent of gene editing technologies, what was once only science fiction is turning into real science. But it's not starting with T-rex, it's starting with a much more humble, but far more powerful, little dinosaur - the passenger pigeon. How will scientists revive the passenger pigeon? How will they put it back into the wild? Why do it at all? The answers all start with the secrets locked inside the DNA of old passenger pigeon bones and specimens, and the Rochester Museum and Science Center's collections have played a big part in that foundational science.
