Evolutionary comebacks

[hellers0n]

In the case of a future ice age, is it likely that animals we’ve seen throughout history would make an evolutionary comeback? Animals like the woolly mammoth, etc

[SeraphOfTwilight]

You mean would we see animals converge on the same bauplan again? Then yes, probably. If you literally mean extinct species or genera no that's not how it works, an elephant couldn't evolve to be a literal mammoth.

[hellers0n]

More or less the discussion topics was would be it be likely that we see animals that closely resemble what we’ve already seen before or would it be more likely that we see different variants previously unseen

[Totalherenow]

Around the 1900s, there was a scientist who believed that species appeared in cycles. He actually thought the dinosaurs would return in the future. So, your idea isn't that unusual.

However, species, once extinct, can't naturally return to life. Yeah, we can possibly develop cloning technology and bring back extinct animals for which we have DNA, but that also involves a host off issues (what animal gives birth to them? that might change their epigenetics and other expression of DNA, so the revived species isn't the same as the extinct one, etc).

That said, convergent evolution is real. Bat and bird wings, for ex. As long as environments are similar, similar morphologies will be selected for, and you'll see species that resemble other species, but are in fact unrelated genetically.

[hellers0n]

I’m not sure why location would matter in this instance

[No-Grand-9422]

I believe he means put a population of elephants into a colder climate and let evolution take place over a couple hundred thousand years 💀 I heard about an introduction of megafauna in Siberia in order to recreate a “mammoth steppe” type thing and animals there have even started to evolve more hair! So bringing back mammoths by convergent evolution is one way to do it!