Bringing Back a Giant Extinct Rat

What's the first animal we're going to "de-extinct"?

A rat.

Of course.

The Christmas Island Rat (Rattus macleari) also known as the Maclear's rat was a massive rat characterized by large teeth, powerful enough to feast on the island's red crabs. It had long, thick fur and black whiskers about three inches in length, and grew to around 1.5 feet from head to tail.

The last Christmas Island Rat was killed off about 120 years ago.
 

Scientists have been able to recover 95 percent of the extinct rat's genome by comparing it to its living relative, the Norway brown rat, and they now hope to resurrect the lost species by using CRISPR technology to edit the 5 percent they're still missing. Most of that missing 5 percent seems to involve genes related to smelling and immunity.