Such a wide scope is impressive, and Mr Ford's enthusiasm for more obscure factual details, such as the decline of the passenger pigeon, shines through.

ECONOMIST: Audacity and elegy

The effort, echoing "Jurassic Park", won't bring back dinosaurs -- their DNA didn't survive the tens of millions of years since they disappeared -- but aims to " de-extinct" such species as the passenger pigeon, declared extinct in 1914.

CNN: Save the planet, then finish high school

The collection contains data on about 900 bird species, some of which -- the Guadalupe storm-petrel, Labrador duck, Guadalupe caracara, great auk, Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon -- have gone extinct.

CNN: Ninety years of birdwatchers' notes going online