Resurrection Science Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things

**A Library Journal Best Book of 2015 **
**A Christian Science Monitor Top Ten Book of September**

In a world dominated by people and rapid climate change, species large and small are increasingly vulnerable to extinction. In Resurrection Science, journalist M. R. O'Connor explores the extreme measures scientists are taking to try and save them, from captive breeding and genetic management to de-extinction. Paradoxically, the more we intervene to save species, the less wild they often become. In stories of sixteenth-century galleon excavations, panther-tracking in Florida swamps, ancient African rainforests, Neanderthal tool-making, and cryogenic DNA banks, O'Connor investigates the philosophical questions of an age in which we "play god" with earth's biodiversity.

Each chapter in this beautifully written book focuses on a unique species--from the charismatic northern white rhinoceros to the infamous passenger pigeon--and the people entwined in the animals' fates. Incorporating natural history and evolutionary biology with conversations with eminent ethicists, O'Connor's narrative goes to the heart of the human enterprise: What should we preserve of wilderness as we hurtle toward a future in which technology is present in nearly every aspect of our lives? How can we co-exist with species when our existence and their survival appear to be pitted against one another?

INTRODUCTION

1

The Ark of Toads

Nectophrynoides asperginis

2

Tracking Chimeras in the Fakahatchee Strand

Puma concolor coryi

3

Exuberant Evolution in a Desert Fish

Cyprinodon tularosa

4

Mysteries of the Whale Called 1334

Eubalaena glacialis

5

Freezing Crows

Corvus hawaiiensis

6

Metaphysical Rhinos

Ceratotherium simum cottoni

7

Passenger Pigeon Regenesis

Neo-Ectopistes migratorius

8

Nice to Meet You, Neanderthal

Homo neanderthalensis

Coda

Ends of the Earth

Endnotes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

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