[49] Which part are you questioning -- that they're human (they're not homo sapiens sapiens -- they're homo sapiens neanderthalensis) -- or that we'd never put humans in an exhibit without their consent?

The dodo's actually been gone for 450 years, way longer than I thought.

From the mouth of Sir Walter Raleigh in the Elizabethan Blackadder, "In three months time he'll be dead as a...dead dodo."

We wouldn't really have to put the neanderthal in an exhibit. We have Youtube now. He could just live with his human mom in a Truman Show type situation, although geared more towards science than entertainment.

Because nobody cares about dodos, but everybody wants to see dinosaurs. OK, a lot of the super-giant herbivores would be boring to watch after the initial awe, but the zoo/theme park could totally finance itself by staging fights between various species of dinosaurs.

Staging fights? Kidding, right? The cloned dinosaur may happen in our lifetime (please please please), but the staged dinosaur fight will not. Each dinosaur is probably going to require a huge investment, and then there are the ethical considerations. You might as well ask for staged panda fights. And zoos survive today with quiet large herbivores and listless lethargic meat eaters.

I am willing to settle for staged panda fights.

I am willing to settle for staged panda fights.

A wise first step on conditioning the public to accept the inevitable staged dinosaur fights.

So why isn't anyone working on cloning (Jurassic Park style) a dodo or something?

Who says they aren't? There are several projects working on cloning extinct animals, and there are probably dna available for the Dodo, as it stands right now though, the only extinct animal successfully clone(in 2009) went extinct in 2003 and died a few days later(Ibex). So we aren't to the stage that we can successfully clone a 300 year extinct animal yet, even if we found perfect DNA. The Woolly Mamoth project is of course receiving plenty of funding/attention, but hasn't made any real progress.

I am willing to settle for staged panda fights.

We will not panda to your basest instincts.

CFB, you are correct. A little Googling reveals that we've cloned mammals, but not yet birds, which surprised me. So my pet dodo and/or giant auk is probably a ways away. Also, did you know that passenger pigeons would only breed when there was a large flock present? So they wouldn't breed at all in captivity, and once their numbers declined, it was an irrevocable downward spiral.

Man, the human race just destroys everything, don't we?

We will not panda to your basest instincts.

You're not game? I feel cheetahed.

Ocelot of bad puns.

We will not panda to your basest instincts.

You're not game? I feel cheetahed.

Ocelot of bad puns.

BOOOO! I wish I had more hands...so I could give those puns four thumbs down.

Man, you know you like 'em - quit lion.