Toward Jurassic Park

In just 30 years time, 1,100 different species of animals - fully one-quarter of all known mammals - are expected to disappear off the face of the Earth. And don't forget the birds: 1,800 varieties will be gone by then as well.

Gone the way of the woolly mammoth and the dodo. Gone forever and, with them, our knowledge of their place in the evolutionary scheme of things.

Or maybe not.

The genetic footprints of the most threatened species are now being collected by the world's first DNA bank dedicated exclusively to endangered animals.

Since 2004, the little-known Frozen Ark project in Nottingham, England has been quietly gathering, storing and preserving genetic "backups" of species for whom conservation efforts have come too late - or not at all.

Priority is being given to 40 animals that are extinct in the wild but still living in zoos. Next in line are 10,000 or so species whose populations have fallen as human numbers inexorably rose.

The modern-day Noah's ark is a parallel project to the international seed bank housed in the Norwegian...