(NBC News) – Scientists have been genetically engineering mice since the 1970s, but new technologies like CRISPR “make it a lot more efficient and easier.”

Extinction is still forever, but scientists at the biotech company Colossal Biosciences are trying what they say is the next best thing to restoring ancient beasts — genetically engineering living animals with qualities to resemble extinct species like the woolly mammoth.

Woolly mammoths roamed the frozen tundras of Europe, Asia and North America until they went extinct around 4,000 years ago. (Read More)