[Ads-l] Word: de-extinction

[Jeff Prucher]

 I'm not sure about the brackets. There are copies of the book available online or for download (although I cannot vouch for the legality of the download sites). Internet Archive has a searchable copy, but with limited view: https://archive.org/details/sourceofmagic0000anth/page/n339/mode/2up?q=cat
Here is fuller context from an epub version I downloaded:
“Again he hesitated--and was brought up short by the coalescing vapor. Suddenly thirteen black cats faced him, spitting viciously.
Bink had never seen a pure cat before, in the flesh. He regarded the cat as an extinct species. He just stood there and stared at this abrupt de-extinction, unable to formulate a durable opinion.”
So these cats are de-extincted by being materialized out of thin air, I think by a magician. Further passages indicate that they are extinct in the fantasyland of Xanth rather than Earth, but why they are, or why a fantasyland should have Earthly animals at all, is not discussed in this passage. 
As written, I think the OED's definition permits this passage, because it is an "imagined revival of an extinct species." Since de-extinction was still a hypothetical act, even in our world, when it was written, not splitting fantastic from scientific de-extinctions seems defensible to me. (And, at least from some articles I've read, it's still hypothetical, since there is not apparently any actual dire wolf DNA in these beasties. But that's an issue for the de-extinction mailing list.)
Jeff Prucher

On Thu, Apr 10, 2025 at 5:49 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The term "de-extinction" is in the news because of the articles about
> dire wolves.
>
> The OED has an entry for "de-extinction" (noun) which refers to the
> scientific underpinnings of "de-extinction". The first citation in
> 1979 is intriguing, but it is from a fantasy novel titled "Source of
> Magic" by Piers Anthony. This is the second book of Anthony's famous
> Xanth series. I doubt that Anthony presented any scientific
> underpinnings for his use of "de-extinction", but I have not read his
> book. Maybe the 1979 citation should be in brackets?
>
> The OED does mention that the 1979 citation is in a fantasy novel.
>
> [Begin excerpt from OED]
> de-extinction noun
>
> The (proposed or imagined) revival of an extinct species, typically by
> cloning or selective breeding. Also: the (proposed) use of such
> methods to prevent a currently endangered species from becoming
> extinct.
    On Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 02:49:59 PM PDT, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 The term "de-extinction" is in the news because of the articles about
dire wolves.

The OED has an entry for "de-extinction" (noun) which refers to the
scientific underpinnings of "de-extinction". The first citation in
1979 is intriguing, but it is from a fantasy novel titled "Source of
Magic" by Piers Anthony. This is the second book of Anthony's famous
Xanth series. I doubt that Anthony presented any scientific
underpinnings for his use of "de-extinction", but I have not read his
book. Maybe the 1979 citation should be in brackets?

The OED does mention that the 1979 citation is in a fantasy novel.

[Begin excerpt from OED]
de-extinction noun

The (proposed or imagined) revival of an extinct species, typically by
cloning or selective breeding. Also: the (proposed) use of such
methods to prevent a currently endangered species from becoming
extinct.

The source of quot. 1979 is a fantasy novel.

1979 He just stood there and stared at this abrupt de-extinction... If
he killed these animals, would he be re-extincting the species?
P. Anthony, Source of Magic xi. 236

2013 A new organisation..has been created to examine the potential for
a new branch of zoology: de-extinction.
[End excerpt]

There is a big gap between the 1973 and 2013 citations. The following
1992 citation is grounded in science, specifically selective breeding
guided by genetics. So, I think it is a solid citation for
de-extinction.

Date: February 22, 1992
Newspaper: Abilene Reporter-News
Newspaper Location: Abilene, Texas
Article: Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet
Quote Page 8A, Column 6
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
De-Extinction

Conservationists in South Africa are, through selective breeding of
zebras, trying to reproduce a horse-like animal called a quagga that
has been extinct for more than a century. The last quagga died in
1883, but thousands roamed the deserts of southern Africa before they
were hunted to extinction by early European settlers.

A DNA analysis of tissue from four stuffed specimens showed that the
animal was actually a subspecies of the plains zebra. In the heat and
dust of Vrolijkheid Nature Conservation Station, 125 miles from Cape
Town, selected zebras which have some of the quagga's genetic
characteristics have already produced offspring that are without
stripes, and look more like the extinct quagga than a zebra.
[End excerpt]

Piers Anthony did write the impressive science fiction novel
Macroscope, so I think he would have been capable of imagining a
scientific basis for de-extinction, but I do not know whether he
mentioned any basis in his fantasy novel.

Garson

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