No 'Jurassic Park': Dinosaurs off the de-extinction menu, scientists say

(Universal Pictures)

Dinosaurs won't be coming soon to a park near you -- although bringing them back to life might be possible.

Indeed, resurrecting long extinct species such as the woolly mammoth, passenger pigeon or other extinct species is the subject of a conference in Washington set to take place Friday at the National Geographic Society. Organizers say rapid advances in molecular biology and new conservation perspectives are creating a new field called "de-extinction."

Speakers include Chris Anderson, curator of the TED Conference talk series, Australian paleontologist Michael Archer and Spanish researcher Alberto FernDandez-Arias, who has worked on cloning a now-extinct goat.

The daylong conference will include discussions of the ethical issues raised if extinct species can be brought back. Those questions include whether they should be released back into the wild and which species should be chosen.

But organizers say dinosaurs aren't among the candidate species, unlike in the movie "Jurassic Park."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.