New Delhi, April 15 -- With wildlife populations globally 73 per cent smaller on average than in 1970 and large mammals missing from much of the world, surely there's never been a better time to "de-extinct" species? US biotech company Colossal Biosciences Inc claimed to do just that recently by resurrecting the dire wolf from Game of Thrones (a species that also lived in our world, several thousand years ago).

The potential seems huge. A species in trouble? Get a high-quality genome and you've made it a save game point, ready to replay when the environment improves. Didn't get there in time? Never mind - you can use frozen remains in the permafrost, or shotgun-blasted specimens in a museum collection. And pretty soon, even if you don't ...