What if You Took an Extinct Species Out Of Time And Dropped Them In the Present Era?

[BAYLOR]

With viable number specimen so that they could breed and start up again? Which species from the past could survive and compete and maybe prosper in the present era's eco system ? Hypothetically , what challenges do you think they might face?

 

[K. Riehl]

Whatever the creature, they haven't adapted to modern viruses and bacteria. They wouldn't make it without quite a bit of help.

I personally would love to have a Sabertooth Tiger. Problem with the yappy dog next door? Drop the cat over the fence, problem eaten.

 

[SilentRoamer]

One of the major issues any species would face - specifically larger and more powerful species would be that the air content has changed significantly.

The oxygen content is far lower and one of the primary reasons species are smaller today than in the past. Jurassic park Dinos would be wheezing asthmatics.

 

[BAYLOR]

One of the major issues any species would face - specifically larger and more powerful species would be that the air content has changed significantly.

The oxygen content is far lower and one of the primary reasons species are smaller today than in the past. Jurassic park Dinos would be wheezing asthmatics.

Some of the smaller dino species could survive.

 

[Tim Murray]

Some of the smaller dino species could survive.

How about the compy's, nasty little buggers! Put them in DC, maybe they could clean up the govt.

 

[Cli-Fi]

With viable number specimen so that they could breed and start up again? Which species from the past could survive and compete and maybe prosper in the present era's eco system ? Hypothetically , what challenges do you think they might face?

Funny you should ask this question because a book I read awhile back deals with this issue in reverse. Just take a look a fragment's summary:

Aboard a long-range research vessel, in the vast reaches of the South Pacific, the cast and crew of the reality show Sealife believe they have found a ratings bonanza. For a director dying for drama, a distress call from Henders Island—a mere blip on any radar—might be just the ticket. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders—and the ultimate test of survival begins.

For when they reach the island’s shores, the scientists are utterly unprepared for what they find—creatures unlike any ever recorded in natural history. This is not a lost world frozen in time; this is Earth as it might have looked after evolving on a separate path for half a billion years—a fragment of a lost continent, with an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards.

Fragment: A Novel: Warren Fahy: 9780553592450: Amazon.com: Books

 

[BAYLOR]

Ammonites? If you dropped a few million specimen of them in the Ocean, they could survive , Thought they might face competition from squids and octopus which are likely a little more intelligent. Their shells would give them some protection from some of the predatory fish.

Trilobites ? Would have a hard time in the shallow areas because of predators and competition for food, but might survive in the deeper parts of the oceans with less of either. Some specials of them in fact did live in the deep oceans .

 

[BAYLOR]

Dunkleosteus a large fearsome predatory fish that lived during the Devonian period, member of the placoderm family which is extinct, It had powerful jaw plates instead of Teeth an was heavily armored. It grew to be about 30 feet long wasn't fast but was an absolute horror . If you introduced into It would probably find enough food to survive. It would easily be a match the great white shark and the killer whale .

 

[Frost Giant]

The above points are all good ones, especially in reference to competition and immunity problems. There have been projects aimed at "resurrecting" the mammoth and (one of my personal favorites) the thylacine. The last known wild thylacine was gunned down by an idiot in 1930, although possible sightings of surviving animals have been reported. It is sad humans forced the thylacine into extinction, it would be nice if they could be brought back or re-discovered.
In a sense species we thought were long extinct have been re-discovered, they're referred to as living fossils.

Living fossil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know this isn't exactly what the OP meant, but finding a small living fossil population and nurturing it into a wider population would be along similar lines.
As far as the Jurassic Park notion goes, there are still too many obstacles like sequence gaps to overcome. Even when well preserved specimens are available (like the mammoth and thylacine) cloning them has still not been achieved. Even if it was, producing a breeding population would be an almost insurmountable challenge.

 

[Gramm838]

Then they wouldn't be an extinct species...

 

[J Riff]

I think people would kill them off again, which is probably what happened to all kinds of beasties. Any bug larger than about four inches would be stamped out, I betcha.

 

[Ajid]

I think all the points raised are fair. But most of all I think we have no idea what could happen.

In the words of Dr. Alan Grant (Jurassic Park).....

"Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?"

Although I think an animal more recently extinct would have less problems. The Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), a predatory marsupial, as mentioned earlier would be a species I'd love to see walk the earth again.

 

[Khuratokh]

While I like the idea of seeing a live dunkleostes, it could not compete with modern orca or sharks. It can't maneuver well and misses the whale's smarts and shark's highly tuned senses.
I'm all for bringing back creatures we made extinct in a very short time due to how delicious they were. Dodo's (my ancestors cooked the last one. Sorry) great flightless alks, giant moa, several species of giant tortoise, budongs, etc.
Also some others that have very recently gone like the tasmanian wolf and the ganges river dolphin.
And some of the older ones we may or may not be responsible for killing off. Like the giant sloth or the maltese pygmee elephant. I mean puppy sized elephants! What's not to love?

 

[Ajid]

How about a being from our own family tree. One that we either bread with or eliminated, or maybe both. Some scientists even believe they had a superior brain, as it was then, to us. I talk of course about bringing back the.....


Neanderthal

 

[Ajid]

Thinking about it we don't need to I work with a few.

 

[BAYLOR]

How about a being from our own family tree. One that we either bread with or eliminated, or maybe both. Some scientists even believe they had a superior brain, as it was then, to us. I talk of course about bringing back the.....


Neanderthal

They did have a larger Brain pan then modern man, 4 percent of our DNA come from Neanderthals.

 

[Khuratokh]

Thinking about it we don't need to I work with a few.

The brain cavity of Neanderthaler is larger than ours. Standing theory is that their brains were not as wrinkly as ours, thus making our brain surface larger while making the brain cavity smaller. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but we did go futher north than they did.
If they were less smart. I'm not sure about the morality of creating a sub-species.

 

[BAYLOR]

The brain cavity of Neanderthaler is larger than ours. Standing theory is that their brains were not as wrinkly as ours, thus making our brain surface larger while making the brain cavity smaller. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but we did go futher north than they did.
If they were less smart. I'm not sure about the morality of creating a sub-species.

I wish they had survived with us.

 

[Ajid]

if this is correct they have, a percentage of you is them and you are a little bit neanderthal. That's why all men desire Wilma Flinstone. And we all do it can't be denied.

 

[Khuratokh]

I wish they had survived with us.

I like to think they did survive in a way. We bred with them. They live in us now. I don't like their portrayal as dumb brutish thugs. From what I've seen from burials, they made art, they pondered the afterlife, they took care of their crippled and elders.

These were not Orks