If you could restore any extinct species, what would it be?

[Liberal Veteran]

I'm somewhere stuck between the passenger pigeon, the dodo, and the giant ground sloth.

[In_The_Wind]

1. Carolina Parakeet

Conuropsis carolinensis
Behold the only species of parrot native to the eastern United States--the Carolina parakeet. Parrots rate among the smartest of birds--perhaps matching the intelligence of chimpanzees and dolphins. The Carolina parakeet, however, was considered a pest by farmers, who shot them from the skies. The species became extinct in the 1920s. Specimens like these are all that's left to tell us about the bird.

[Liberal Veteran]

4. That was in my short list....I find myself fascinated by species

...that I will never get to see. Oh, I can handle not seeing dinosaurs or terror birds (something about 9ft tall carnivorous birds scares the bejeebus out of me), but things like mammoths and sabretooths and some of the more recent extinctions strike me as so sad.

The passenger pigeon is a particularly heinous extinction. How the heck do you wipe out 5 billion birds?

[Ladyhawk]

18. These guys were related to sun, jenday and gold-capped conures. n/t

[In_The_Wind]

24. They were murdered in-mass! Humans are by far the most cruel of all.

How many species do you know that kill for sport ...

[Ladyhawk]

27. Not many, but there are a few.

Cats and killer whales come to mind, but since they aren't as intelligent as people, I don't expect them to live by our morals. At least killer whales eat what they've played with. Mountain lions sometimes enter a livestock enclosure and slaughter dozens of animals. I guess faced with all that meat, they just can't help themselves. :shrug:

Our ancestors killed the Carolina parakeet because it was in the way. I wish they had found a different solution. :( Even the few preserved skins are losing their color, so we only have drawings to preserve the true beauty of these wonderful little parrots. I imagine they were much like their relatives, the Aratinga conures, especially suns, jendays and gold caps. They looked a LOT like jendays:



The main difference I see between the Carolina parakeet and the sun, jenday and gold-capped conures is the color of the beak. Suns, jendays and gold-caps have dark beaks. From restorations, it appears the Carolina parakeet had a light beak:



Yellow-crowned and double yellowheaded Amazons are fairly closely related, but there is a difference in beak coloration there, too. My DYH has a light beak. The beaks of yellow crowns (and yellow napes) are darker.

Carolina parakeets were beautiful birds and I'm sure they were delightfully playful, just like every Aratinga conure I've ever known.

[In_The_Wind]

28. Here's a book I highly recommend.

Only one of the birds thought to be extinct is still with us ... Lord God Bird or the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

www.worldwildlife.org/news/woodpecker.cfm

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4622633&sourceCode=gaw

[Ladyhawk]

49. Yes, I learned about the "resurrection" of the Ivory Bill.

It was great news! Unfortunately, it's probably doomed anyway. I hope not.

Have you ever read the story of the last wild Spix's macaw? It was very, very sad. :( Finally, he teamed up with a mate from another species, but hasn't been seen in years. The Spix's macaw is now extinct in the wild. It just makes me sick to think of it. :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Folks who own Spix's macaws won't come forward because they're afraid of repercussions. Also, people who have raised parrots for release in the wild are having trouble teaching the youngsters how to stay alive. Out of all the domestically-raised thick-billed parrots released in Arizona, only one had survived last I checked. The wild-captured birds fared better. I hope the people raising the thick-bills will find better methods of teaching the youngsters survival skills. (Thick-bills were extirpated from the pine woods of Arizona, but still live in Mexico.)

Thanks for the book recommendation. I don't know if I could even read it because just looking at the title I get choked up: "A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds." Sigh. :(

A few years ago I ran across an old, old man who said he remembers the passenger pigeons. There were billions of them and they were noisy!!! He said he also remembers when the Titanic sank. The old fellow is probably dead by now. Interesting conversation!

If you want to see a cool documentary about parrots, check out Parrots: Look Who's Talking. Also, this Nova special can be streamed and is a MUST SEE: Entertaining Parrots. Alan Alda is the host. Very cool!

[Ladyhawk]

50. BTW, thanks for the book recommendation.

I went ahead and put it on my wish list at Amazon, along with the "Holy Grail" book about the Ivory Bill. I wish they would rediscover the Carolina parakeet, but I think that's probably too much to ask. I guess some might have survived far south in the everglades. :(

[blindpig]

78. You might find this interesting.

I recently finished The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird by Noel F R Snyder. Very interesting and the author has an intriguing hypothesis about the birds final demise. According to Snyder's research human predation upon the parakeets had tailed off in the last quarter of the 19th century yet they continued to decline into oblivion. Snyder thinks that the birds love of thistle as food brought it into regular contact with domestic fowl and their diseases as thistle is common on disturbed ground near human habitation. That and the bird's habit of roosting in groups in hollows spelled their doom. Don't know if that's correct but I love an elegant hypothesis.

Snyder also recounted all of the last sightings, some of which were on land that is now Francis Marion NF, pretty much like it was. Guess where I'm camping this spring?

edited for clarity.

[derby378]

35. Three factors are blamed for the extinction of the Carolina parakeet

(1) Aggressive hunting by humans due to their pillaging of grain farms.
(2) A fatal disease specific to Carolina parakeets that spread among flocks.
(3) Poor parenting skills of many Carolina parakeets.

At least this is what I heard from the Audubon Society once upon a time. When all three happened at once, the Carolina parakeet was history.

I would love to see this bird come back. They look beautiful.

[0007]

48. What a beautiful bird. Parrot are indeed smart and I'm surprised

everyday by something Diego does or say. Diego, is my Double Yellow Head Amazon parrot. They are great companions.

[Ladyhawk]

51. I also have a DYH Amazon. He's almost nineteen. (Warning: Pic)

[0007]

67. Looks a lot like Diego. Except Diego is still a bappy. He just

turned one last June.

[Ladyhawk]

53. I'm going to go with you on this one because of my love of parrots. n/t

[Ladyhawk]

54. I'd also like to see the Spix's macaw returned to the wild. (Warning! Pic)

I'd also like to see the return of the Spix's macaw to the wild. There are a few alive in captivity, but efforts to release captive-raised parrots have not been terribly successful. :( :( :(

I just found an article about a Spix's macaw named Presley that will be returned to his native country for breeding. Here's a picture of Presley:



Here's Presley's story: http://www.worldparrottrust.org/news/spixreturn.htm

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Brontosaurus. Or, maybe better, the old Teddy Roosevelt type republican

I just think a brontasaurus would be fucking cool.

And it would also be cool to have the old time, not so bad type republicans back.

[Liberal Veteran]

5. Can we train the brontos to eat the current crop of republicans?

Or would they just sicken and die as result of eating such diseased creatures?

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. I think they'd die. But we can train them to trample!!

I'd love to put a couple brontosauruses up against a conservative gated McMansion community. Those shittily-made over-sized houses would last about ten seconds against a full sized Brontosauraus!

[Floogeldy]

3. Defnilly the Dodo bird.

Ben Franklin said it was much tastier than chicken or turkey.

[mcscajun]

76. I have to concur with the Dodo.

It's gotta be seen.

[Awsi Dooger]

7. The wishbone offense

I just loved it, the blocking schemes and the reads and the speed. It would be fun to watch top caliber teams running it again and making the spread offenses look silly as often as not.

[Floogeldy]

OMG

Hasn't "parity" pretty much negated the possibility of a team dominating with the Wishbone? It seems that the most successful Wishbone teams of the past managed, for the most part, on superior talent and speed, which is less likely to happen today.

In the same vein, isn't there a good reason why Nebraska abandoned the option for the spread offense?

Just thinking out loud.

[Awsi Dooger]

12. I simply dispute the conventional wisdom

The Miami and USCs and FSUs and teams with the superior talent never utilized the wishbone. They would have thrived with it but the availability of superior skill position athletes made them naturally tend toward the pro style attacks. When Oklahoma ran the wishbone successfully into the late '80s they actually had far inferior talent to many teams, specifically the Miami teams they lost to three years in a row. If you look at those rosters now it looks like Miami should have been favored by 3 TDs every time. But the results of those high profile games made other schools shy away from the wishbone. It was incompetent handicapping. The games were decided by Miami's superior talent, not the respective schemes. If Miami had evolved as a wishbone team and Oklahoma a passing team the results would have been identical as long as the rosters had the same talent level.

I have no idea why Nebraska was idiotic enough to switch to a pantyhose passing style and average 89 yards rushing per game this year. It reminds me of Colorado abandoning an option attack that shared the national title in '90 to a finesse passing style that Nebraska routinely crushed throughout the '90s.

Texas averages 284 yards rushing. As a USC alum I'm worried about their chances in the Rose Bowl. If Texas threw the ball around all game I wouldn't be worried about anything except what I would do with my betting profit on the game. It's called the Vince Lombardi Trophy, not the Don Coryell Trophy. The Four Horsemen, not the Four Flying Tinkerbells. In an ultra physical sport the finesse approach is destined to fail. Andy Reid is slowly learning that the hard way.

[jobycom]

8. Woolly Mammoths

The name just sounds so cool.

[Robeson]

11. My pick, too. Though it would be cool to unleash herds of....

...tyrannosaurus rex's through some Republican gated communities....:evilgrin:

[FuzzySlippers]

38. My pick, too. How cool would it be to have herds of these guys around?

[jobycom]

73. Shovel sales would increase.nt

[Redneck Socialist]

9. The Passenger Pigeon

There is probably some poor dead critter out there that I've never heard of that is pretty damn cool, but I feel robbed that I'll never get to see a flock of birds so large that it will block out the sun.

GIVE ME BACK A COMPLETE ECOSYSTEM WITH ALL ITS PARTS DAMN IT! :mad: :grr: :nuke:

[chknltl]

10. Fox Mulder

I always liked that name... Speaking of which, I have not seen Err around lately, did he change his name again?

[Err]

45. Haha.

No, chknltl, I'm right here.

I was on a five-day hiatus for Thanksgiving. :hi:

[liberaltrucker]

13. Whooping Crane

One beautiful bird.

[pitohui]

39. the whooping crane is not extinct

hell i saw some yesterday

[arwalden]

14. ~

[Rowdyboy]

15. What a neat thread! We were talking about extinct species earlier

tonight and I made a mental note to mention the passenger pigeon. I never got around to it as the conversation moved on but I would certainly chose it as the "most desired clone" species. Beautiful, plentiful and edible. What more could one ask?

[Skittles]

16. Passenger pigeon

aw why not?

The last Passenger Pigeon, named Martha, died alone at the Cincinnati Zoo at about 1:00 pm on September 1, 1914. Who could have dreamed that within a few decades, the once most numerous bird on Earth would be forever gone?

[PittPoliSci]

21. a rat with wings.

but i'd still rather have it here. i like the color...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Megaloceros

[PittPoliSci]

22. i can't remember the species name...

but there was a dinosaur my friend told me about, he nicknamed it the "cockosaurus" because it's boner was soooo big that ever time it would get an erection, it'd pass out because blood would evacuate the brain and go to the penis.

[Hand]

46. That would explain its extinction!

:rofl:

[leftofthedial]

19. Powerful, progressive Democrats

[undeterred]

31. oh yeah

Do we still have the DNA stored somewhere?

[leftofthedial]

41. I think it's gone missing

like the assassination evidence

[wickerwoman]

20. Lipleurodon

We need to thin out the herd a bit.

I'd also like to see wooly mammoths make a come back. If we could miniaturize them, I bet they'd make great pets.

[Ladyhawk]

56. So, do you want to nuke the whales with Liopleurodon?

:D

[Bridget Burke]

81. The last mammoths were dwarves--about 6 feet tall at the shoulder.

Cloning & a bit more miniaturization would do the job!

They went extinct about the time the Egyptian pyramids & Stonehenge were built. We just missed them.

[AntiCoup2K4]

23. Legitimate elections

:evilfrown:

[China_cat]

25. Definitely the dodo

perfect repub animal.

[baldguy]

26. Republicans who are loyal Americans.

[seemunkee]

29. Tasmanian Tiger

[baldguy]

34. Like this?

[Ladyhawk]

66. I think the pic of the dead thing was from Texas, wasn't it?

:shrug:

[seemunkee]

69. It was a dog with mange

There are unsubstantiated sightings of Tasmanian tigers now and then.

[LeftyMom]

30. Carcharodon megalodon

:D

[Ladyhawk]

57. Oooo...we could have a Liopleurodon / Megalodon fight!

Who would win?

[LeftyMom]

58. Liopleurodon looks more maneuverable

but I think Megalodon would be harder to disabe. Still L is a shark-eater with appropriate adaptations, while Megalodon ate whales and I'm guessing it attacked from below as Great Whites do to pinipeds.

Either way, it sounds like one of those bad monster movies Big reviews. :D

[Ladyhawk]

61. Oh, let's have Animal Planet do one of those hypothetical

animal versus animal programs, only with liopleurodon and megalodon! Sigh...I no longer have television. I was over at my mother's house fixing her computers--she has three, two of which I built--and I turned the channel from Faux News (yuck) to Animal Planet. I'd forgotten how much I missed it. :( They were doing stories about animals during the tsunami.

[LeftyMom]

62. I love animal planet

That'd be a decent Shark Week tie-in too.

[Ladyhawk]

64. Heh heh...cool. :)

It isn't such a bad idea, but Liopleurodon was a Jurassic beastie while Megalodon lived in the Miocene. Still, it would be fun to pit reptile versus shark.

If the shark was smart enough, it could use Liopleurodon's oxygen dependence against it, but I don't think it would. :) Meg would be much faster, I think, but Liopleurodon could turn more quickly. Liopleurodon also had a bigger bite radius.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

32. By far the dodo.

Stupid-looking but awesome birds rock!!

[alarimer]

33. Steller's sea cow

Related to the manatee and dugong but MUCh bigger. Apparently was hunted to extinction within 40 years of its discovery. One again just another example of how the human race sucks.

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/bl-seacow.htm

[man4allcats]

36. If only for one night at least

I'd like to see a living, breathing T. rex in Bush's bedroom.

[XemaSab]

37. Another vote for the parakeet

but labrador duck and giant auk would also be cool.

[freethought]

40. I'll put in a few!

1.) The Great Auk
2.) Passenger Pigeon
3.) Carolina Parakeet
4.) Tasmanian Tiger
5.) The Dodo Bird
6.) Dusky Seaside Sparrow
7.) Stellar's Sea Cow

I chose those species that became extinct because of man.

[AlienGirl]

42. Teratorns

How cool would it be to see one of these fly by:



Tucker

[Kali]

43. Auroch

Aurochs evolved in India some two million years ago, migrated into the Middle East and further into Asia, and reached Europe about 250,000 years ago. They were once considered a distinct species from modern European cattle (Bos taurus), but more recent taxonomy has rejected this distinction. The South Asian domestic cattle, the zebu, may be descended from a related species, the gaur, although others consider them another descendant species from aurochs. African cattle are thought to have resulted from a third aurochs domestication event, in this case, the domestication of a second group of aurochs closely related to the Near Eastern ones which gave rise to the European cattle. Modern cattle have become much smaller than their wild forebears: the height at the withers of a domesticated cow is about 1.4 meters, whereas an aurochs could reach about 1.75 meters.
from: http://www.answers.com/topic/aurochs


Highlight mine - maybe they AREN'T extint at all.


Aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European cave paintings such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France.

[MarsThe Cat]

44. how about pterodactyls?

Dodo's were delicious, sabre-tooth tigers were badasses...but giant flying killer lizards would be way cool, and maybe put the sport back into duck hunting.

[Err]

47. The Giant Short-Faced Bear

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Arctodus, also known as the Short-Faced Bear, is a genus of extinct bear. One species, the Giant Short-Faced Bear (Arctodus simus) was the biggest bear ever to have lived. Standing 1.5 metres at the shoulder (over 3 metres when standing on hind legs) and equipped with powerful jaws this bear would have been an intimidating sight.

Arctodus seems to have been mainly a carnivore and was by far the most powerful land predator during the Ice Age in North America. It may have attacked bison, deer, and horses and other large herbivores, but probably partly lived, like many other large carnivores like lions, as a scavenger. Compared to modern brown bears it had much longer limbs and was generally more slender. It had a very short, broad muzzle which gives rise to its name, and which gave it a very powerful bite. Its long legs were adapted for a faster running-style than modern bears and enabled Arctodus to hunt and to range far and wide in search of prey and carrion and its powerful bite enabled it to crack open bones to reach rich marrow.

Ask me this question again in ten-twenty years, then I'll say the Polar Bear. :( :cry:

[SoCalDem]

52. Sabre-toothed tigers

[ceile]

80. me too n/t

[NNadir]

55. Mastadons would be cool I bet.

The Great Auk would also be cool.

Here is the depressing list of extinct birds.

http://www.earthlife.net/birds/extinct-list.html

One nearly extinct species may soon be restored, the magnificient American Chestnut. The new tree will not be exactly the same as the original. It will contain the crossbred genes of the Asian Chestnut.

[Metta]

59. liberal republicans and outspoken democrats

nt

[Hardrada]

60. Democrats

[Crazy Guggenheim]

63. The common ancestor to apes and humans.

[Ladyhawk]

65. Runner up, for me: Utahraptor.

[Ivan Sputnik]

68. T Rex

but I'd keep them on an island . . .

[Crazy Guggenheim]

70. The Cultosaurus.

[BreweryYardRat]

71. No one came up with Sarcosuchus yet?

50 feet of dinosaur-munching croc.



Liopleurodon runs a close second, with Megalania priscea, sabretoothed cats, Andrewsarchus, giant ground sloths, and the short-faced bear tying for third.

[MiniMandaRuth]

72. The true liberal.

Don't have many of those anymore.

[enigami]

74. Cave Bear n/t

[kick-ass-bob]

75. None. God wouldn't have killed them if they didn't deserve it.

:hide:

[mcscajun]

77. I'll take one of each, bird, animal, tree, and a bonus just because

Carolina Parakeet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Parakeet

the Eastern Elk (one of the two sub-species of elk out of six native to North America to have become extinct.)
Cervus elaphus canadensis
Believed to be extinct.
It once lived in Ontario, southern Quebec, and over much of the eastern United States including Pennsylvania, but excluding New England and Florida.
http://notes.utk.edu/bio/unistudy.nsf/9eab68a4f27cc7dd85256e3600733574/e729c1ca125951bf85256fba00624309?OpenDocument

American Chestnut
http://www.acf.org/Chestnut_history.htm

And our bonus entry, the Dodo - just because something so amazingly bizarre-looking and flightless OUGHT to be seen, even if only on Mauritius.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo

[newyawker99]

79. The Mammath, the saber-toothed tiger and

a brontosaurus.


:-)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

82. A Conservativorous T-Rex

You can guess what "conservativorous" means. :D

[blindpig]

83. All of those exterminated by our species. But if I must pick one

the Thylacine(Tasmanian Wolf). But one's not enough, I want to see Carolina Parakeets, Las Vegas Leopard Frogs, Moas, Great Auk, Atlantic Gray Whale, Lemurs the size of gorillas, 30ft moniter lizards, and on and on and on;(

[Strong Atheist]

84. Trilobites,

they lasted a long time ... at least according to those lying, misinformed evolutionary biologists ...