History of Cloning Timeline

In 1952, Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King cloned a tadpole, an early landmark in nuclear transfer research with amphibians.

Image source: Somatic cell nuclear transfer

In 1963, Chinese embryologist Tong Dizhou produced the world's first cloned fish by inserting the DNA from a cell of a male carp into an egg from a female carp.

Image source: Tong Dizhou

In 1981, George Streisinger produced the next in line of the vertebrates to be cloned: the zebrafish.

Image source: George Streisinger

In 1984, Steen Willadsen produced the first cloned mammal from early embryonic cells: a sheep.

In 1986, a mouse was successfully cloned from an early embryonic cell.

Image source: Cloning

In 1987, Soviet scientists Levon Chaylakhyan, Veprencev, Sviridova, and Nikitin cloned Masha, a mouse.

In June 1995, the Roslin Institute cloned Megan and Morag from differentiated embryonic cells.

Image source: Roslin Institute

Dolly was cloned by PPL Therapeutics and the Roslin Institute in July 1996 from a somatic cell. She achieved notoriety as the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She lived at the Roslin Institute in Scotland from her birth until her death in 2003 when she was six.

Image source: Dolly (sheep)

Although Dolly was born on 5 July 1996, her existence was not announced to the world until 22 February 1997, sparking global fascination and debate about cloning.

In October 1999, the Oregon National Primate Research Center cloned Tetra from embryo splitting rather than nuclear transfer: a process more akin to artificial formation of twins.

In March 2000, PPL Therapeutics cloned five piglets, marking the successful cloning of pigs.

Image source: Dolly (sheep)

In 2001, scientists of Northwest A&F University successfully cloned the first goat using an adult female cell.

Image source: Goat

Dolly died in 2003 at age six. Scientists speculated that her death was related to the shortening of telomeres, DNA-protein complexes that protect the end of linear chromosomes. This idea that nuclei have not irreversibly aged was shown in 2013 to be true for mice.

Idaho Gem, a john mule born 4 May 2003, was the first member of the horse family to be cloned.

Image source: Gem County, Idaho

Prometea, a Haflinger female born 28 May 2003, was the first cloned horse.

Image source: Horse cloning

In 2005, Snuppy, a male Afghan Hound, became the first cloned dog, and Snuwolf and Snuwolffy became the first two cloned female wolves.

Image source: Snuppy

Cloning of a successful rescue dog was reported in 2009 and of a similar police dog in 2019. Cloning of super sniffer dogs was reported in 2011, four years afterwards when the dogs started working.

Injaz, born on 6 February 2009 at India's Karnal National Dairy Research Institute context aside, was the first cloned camel. A cloned water buffalo born at India's Karnal National Dairy Research Institute on 6 February 2009 died five days later due to lung infection.

Image source: Injaz (camel)

In 2012, Noori became the first cloned pashmina goat.

In 2017, the world's first gene-editing clone dog, Apple, was created by Sinogene Biotechnology.

In 2017, conducted in China and reported in January 2018, the first successful cloning of a primate species using nuclear transfer occurred, with the birth of two live macaque clones named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.

In January 2019, scientists in China reported the creation of five identical cloned gene-edited monkeys, using the same cloning technique used with Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua and Dolly the sheep, and the gene-editing Crispr-Cas9 technique allegedly used by He Jiankui in creating the first gene-modified human babies Lulu and Nana. In 2018, those scientists declared they had no intention of trying to clone people.

In 2022, viable mice offspring were born from unfertilized eggs via targeted DNA methylation editing of seven imprinting control regions — the first artificial parthenogenesis in mammals.

Image source: Parthenogenesis

In 2023, Chinese scientists reported the cloning of three supercows with milk productivity nearly 1.7 times that of an average cow in the United States in 2021, along with a plan for 1,000 such super cows in the near-term.

Anticipating the possibility of de-extinction, tissue samples from the last bucardo (Pyrenean ibex) were frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after it died in 2000.

Image source: Pyrenean ibex

In 2001, a cow named Bessie gave birth to Noah, a cloned Asian gaur, the first endangered species to be cloned, but the calf died after two days.

Image source: Gaur

In 2003, for the first time, an extinct animal, the Pyrenean ibex, was cloned at the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon, using preserved frozen cell nuclei of skin samples from 2001 and domestic goat egg-cells.

In 2003, a banteng was successfully cloned, followed by three African wildcats from a thawed frozen embryo.

Image source: Banteng

In 2002, geneticists at the Australian Museum announced they had replicated DNA of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), extinct for about 65 years, using polymerase chain reaction. However, on 15 February 2005 the museum announced it was stopping the project after tests showed the specimens' DNA had been too badly degraded by the ethanol preservative. On 15 May 2005 the project was announced to be revived.

Image source: Thylacine

In 2009, the Pyrenean ibex became the first extinct animal to be cloned back to life; the clone lived for only seven minutes before dying of lung defects.

Scientists at the University of Newcastle and University of New South Wales announced in March 2013 that the recently extinct gastric-brooding frog would be the subject of a cloning attempt to resurrect the species. The frog, thought extinct since 1983, was cloned in Australia, although the embryos died after a few days.

Image source: Gastric-brooding frog

Also in 2020, a clone named Elizabeth Ann was produced of a female black-footed ferret that had no living descendants. A team of scientists cloned Willa, who died in the mid-1980s and left no living descendants. The San Diego Zoo also began projects in partnership with Revive & Restore and ViaGen Pets and Equine to clone individuals of genetically-impoverished endangered species.

Image source: Black-footed ferret

Kurt, the first cloned Przewalski's horse, was born in 2020. He was cloned from skin tissue of a stallion preserved in 1980. In 2023, a second clone of the original stallion, named Ollie, was born; this marked the first instance of multiple living clones of a single individual of an endangered species being alive at the same time. Trey was also born in 2023.

Image source: Przewalski's horse

Engineers proposed a 'lunar ark' in 2021 – storing millions of seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from Earth's contemporary species in a network of lava tubes on the Moon as a genetic backup. Similar proposals have been made since at least 2008. That same year, Russia's defense minister Sergei Shoigu mentioned using DNA of 3,000-year-old Scythian warriors to potentially bring them back to life.

Image source: Moonbase

In 2022, Colossal Biosciences and University of Melbourne announced further efforts to de-extinct the Thylacine, creating the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab, which claims significant advancements including a thylacine genome more than 99.9-per-cent accurate. Also in 2022, scientists showed major limitations of genetic-editing-based de-extinction, suggesting resources spent on projects such as the woolly mammoth may not be well allocated.

In 2024, Colossal Biosciences announced they had brought the dire wolf back from extinction via cloning and genetic engineering.