by Terrence Aym

Created on: March 17, 2013   Last Updated: March 18, 2013

As genetic researchers around the world are on the edge of successfully resurrecting extinct species, some scientists and endangered species groups are raising red flags.

The amazing quest to bring back extinct animals began in earnest with an idea by scientist Dr. Teruhiko who made a breakthrough in the incredible goal to resurrect living mammoths.

Early attempts

The first serious attempt to resurrect the mammoth—a creature extinct for 5,000 years—failed. Although cells were successfully harvested from mammoths discovered frozen in the Siberian tundra, the critical cellular nuclei needed to bring the animals back to life were severely damaged from the cold.

The Japanese have been at the forefront in the project to return woolly mammoths to the land of the living. It's been a dream bordering on an obsession for some of the research teams focused on the goal to resurrect extinct life.

Another Japanese professor, Wakayama, succeeded in creating a living, healthy mouse with cells cloned from another mouse that was dead—and frozen—for more than 16 years. That has major implications upon the successful outcome of resurrecting any animal.

Other teams in Australia and Russia are also working hard to be the first to bring the mammoth back.

The goal to resurrect extinct animals, specifically the woolly mammoth, received a huge boost with the recent discovery of pristine mammoth DNA deep in the desolate province of Yakutia located in northeastern Siberia. Scientists from Russia's North-Eastern Federal University confirm that frozen mammoth flesh appears to contain living cells.

Semyon Grigoryev, the expedition leader of a team of international scientists—including Koreans that specifically seek to harvest well-preserved woolly mammoth DNA in hopes of bringing back the great beasts—told the popular online news site, Vzglyad, that hair, viable bone marrow and soft tissue has been harvested from the remains of a mammoth lying more than 300 feet below ground.

But mammoths are not the only creature destined to roam the 21st Century long after they disappeared.

Dinosaurs to return?

The chief science technical adviser for the movie series Jurassic Park, Dr. Jack Horner, professor at Montana State University, wants to create a Velociraptor-sized dinosaur. Velociraptors, as depicted in the motion picture film "Jurassic Park," were the most intelligent, deadly and fleetest of dinosaurs. In the film they were the crafty ones that sometimes outsmarted

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