History Main / FossilRevival

* While not quite extinct, the black-footed ferret is ''very'' close to the brink and is under threat from factors such as inbreeding. To preserve their genetic diversity, a number of samples were taken from a wild population found in the 1980's and have been preserved ever since. One of these samples, taken from a female named Willa, was used to create a clone named Elizabeth Ann in December 2020. She is the first clone of an endangered North American species. While Elizabeth Ann had to receive a hysterectomy before she could breed, more clones are on the way.

* ''Literature/TheImmortals'': In the third book, Daine flies into an UnstoppableRage when she believes Numair to be dead. Said UnstoppableRage involves not only amassing an army of ''living'' animals but also reanimating the myriad dinosaur skeletons hanging around the Carthaki palace.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterSanctuary'': Shockhoppers were hunted to extinction centuries ago, so the only way to obtain one in the present is to bring a [[NotSoExtinct Dodo]] egg to Lady Stasis, who will then convert it into a Shockhopper egg.

So there's some creature long extinct, but there are fossils of it. Well, to twist an old saying, where there's a fossil, there's a way...a way to bring it BackFromTheDead with a dose of AppliedPhlebotinum.

** The extinct [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenean_ibex Pyrenean ibex]] was the first -- and so far only -- animal resurrected by cloning, although it died from lung problems seven minutes after birth. In this case, however, the genetic material came from tissue samples taken from the last Pyrenean ibex when it was still alive. Currently, a team of Australian scientists is likewise attempting to revive the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric-brooding_frog gastric-brooding frog.]]
** Realistically speaking, there's no chance of getting genetic material for something as long-extinct as a non-avian dinosaur -- there's simply no way for DNA to survive for the 65 million or more years since their extinction even in ideal conditions, let alone the process of fossilization. So sorry, no ''T. rex'' that way. However, it ''is'' theoretically possible to genetically reverse engineer a ''T. rex'' from, say, a chicken. Or at least genetically engineer something that looks similar to a ''T. rex''.
* While not quite extinct, the Black-Footed Ferret is ''very'' close to the brink and is under threat from factors such as inbreeding. To preserve their genetic diversity, a number of samples were taken from a wild population found in the 1980's and have been preserved ever since. One of these samples, taken from a female named Willa, was used to create a clone named Elizabeth Ann in December 2020. She is the first clone of an endangered North American species. While Elizabeth Ann had to receive a hysterectomy before she could breed, more clones are on the way.

* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' had a dinosaur park created from DNA cloned from fossils (this comic was published ''twelve years'' before ''Literature/JurassicPark'' was written). ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' runs into "Satunus", a particularly vicious ''T. rex'' that had escaped from the park, in several adventures.

* ''Literature/{{Carnosaur}}'', written [[OlderThanTheyThink six years]] before Michael Crichton [[Literature/JurassicPark ran with the idea]], uses this trope to recreate dinosaurs from mummified fossil remains.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has you search for fossils to resurrect an extinct dinosaur species called the kakliosaur. Shepard even says s/he found the fossil encased in [[Film/JurassicPark amber]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon'': Being a LetsPlay of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', has naturally encountered some of these. ''Unlike'' the Pokemon example, however, the fossil Pokemon are revered as long-dead deities: Dome and Helix [[OrderVsChaos (Order and Chaos)]], Root and Claw ([[MotorMouth Speech]] and [[TheVoiceless Silence]]), Armor and Skull ([[TheStrategist Strategy]] and [[AttackAttackAttack Luck]]), Plume and Cover ([[TheGrimReaper Death]] and [[LivingForeverIsAwesome Life]]), Jaw and Sail ([[RealityWarper Alternate Dimensions]]), and finally Amber and Drive ([[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Balance]] and [[MadGod Imbalance]]). Helix is generally considered the [[BigGood patron god]] of the Voices, although the host Alice was Dome-aligned and the host AJ actually killed Helix.

** "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]": Professor Farnsworth attempts to revive the fossilized remains of Fry's dog.
** One of the [[WhatIf Anthology of Interest]] episodes had Farnsworth turning Bender human by means of "[[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum reverse fossilization]]", which was also able to turn a toaster into a raccoon.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' features [[http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-view-article&egart_uid=4823993f36e02 lazurogenics]], which has reconstructed and many extinct or even cryptozoological species. Most of them have been [[UpliftedAnimal provolved]] such as the Toh Chi Lok, some of whom have transcended to form the [[DeusEstMachina archailect]] [[http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-view-article&egart_uid=48f7ffc7c1000 "The Archosaurian Entity"]].

* While not quite extinct, the Black-Footed Ferret is ''very'' close to the brink and is under threat from factors such as inbreeding. To preserve their genetic diversity, a number of samples were taken from a wild population found in the 1980's and have been preserved ever since. One of these samples, taken from a female named Willa, was used to create a clone named Elizabeth Ann in December 2020. She is the first clone of an endangered North American species.

* ''Film/JurassicPark'': Over the movies' course, a series of companies recreate dinosaurs through fossilized DNA from amber-trapped mosquitoes and then use them to create futuristic theme parks. [[FinaglesLaw This inevitably backfires every time a new park is opened]], with the dinosaurs escaping from their enclosures in some way or another and rampaging through the park.