This undated handout provided by ExhibitEase LLC shows a 3D computer generated Image of woolly mammoth emerging from ice block. (AP Photo/Mammoth Genome Project, Steven W. Marcus)

The world's last passenger pigeons perished a century ago. But a Santa Cruz-based research project could send them flocking into the skies again, using genetic engineering to restore the once-abundant species and chart a revival for other long-gone creatures.

The promise and peril of "resurrection biology" which could bring back other long-gone species such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger but runs the risk of undermining conservation efforts was the topic for experts who gathered

This preserved passenger pigeon, held by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is shown Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003, in Knoxville, Tenn., during the unveiling of a painting of the bird to benefit the Smokies' Tremont Institute. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

"The grand goal is to bring the passenger pigeon back to life," said researcher Ben Novak of Revive and Restore, supported by entrepreneur Stewart Brand's Long Now Foundation of San Francisco and conducted at UC Santa Cruz. "We're at the baby step of stage one."

After studying old and damaged gene fragments of 70 dead passenger pigeons in the lab of UCSC professor Beth Shapiro, the team will assemble in computers the genetic code of the bird once hunted to extinction. They hope to complete that within a year.

Within two years, they plan to synthesize the actual DNA code, using commercially available nucleotides. This material will be inserted into the embryo of the passenger pigeon's closest living relative, a band-tailed pigeon.

Then there will be new challenges, Shapiro said.

"We need to turn it into a creature. We have to raise a captive breeding herd.Then there is the tricky part of

A replica of a saber-tooth tiger is seen during the "Giganten Der Eizeit" exhibition opening on May 31, 2011 in St Peter-Ording, Germany. (Photo by Krafft Angerer/Getty Images)

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Scientists examine the ethics of reviving extinct animal species

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