At Colossal Biosciences in Dallas, the mission is clear: pair cutting-edge science with high-tech tools to reach a goal of prehistoric proportions.

We are less than five years away from seeing mammoths back on the planet.

Not if it's going to happen, when it's going to happen.

It's simply a function of time.

So two really interesting things- Which is why co founder and CEO, Ben Lamb, says now's the time to embrace the term deextinction, the process of creating an extinct species, or at least an animal, that resembles one. In Colossal's case, the wooly mammoth, which died off roughly 4,000 years ago. The company announced a major breakthrough, how to essentially reprogram the cells of elephants, allowing Colossal to then recreate their modern a version of a mammoth. You'd be forgiven if all this sounds like... Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't start to think if they should.

We've heard the Jurassic Park comparison once or twice, right? Now We're not taking dino DNA and putting in frog DNA. We're not taking mammoth DNA and putting in elephant DNA. We're actually doing an exactly reverse.

Asian elephant DNA, to be exact, because according to Colossal, it's the closest living relative to its prehistoric predecessor, a 99.6% match. The return of the wooly mammoth essentially starts here. Yes, absolutely. We join Dr. Ariana Hisoli, lead researcher on the Wooly Mammoth Project. So we're looking at essentially an Asian elephant in cellular form. That's actually correct. Yes. Colossal says this process will allow them to not only bring back other extinct animals, but also save animals on the brink of extinction and even improve the environment by restoring the animals to old habitats. Even though Colossal admits that this is a major breakthrough, the company does stress, don't expect to see any real life wooly mammoths for at least the next few years. But in the science community, there are researchers who not only have questions here, but are concerned.

Number one, it's not really a mammoth. It's a mutated Asian elephant.

Dr. Vincent Lynch specializes in Genetics and Evolution biology at the University at Buffalo, and stresses timing is everything.

To put them back now isn't to replace something that was once there, but it's to put an invasive species into an environment in which it's never been before.

Is there 1% in the back of your mind of where something could go wrong?

We're doing the best that we can to collaborate with all the top scientists, bioethicists, and conservationists around the world to ensure that it goes as right as possible. But there will always be some risk in any large moonshot for society.

A mammoth-sized moonshot. Coming soon. Morgan Chesky, NBC News, Dallas.

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