Frozen zoo

A frozen zoo is a storage facility in which genetic materials taken from animals (e.g. DNA, sperm, eggs, embryos and live tissue) are gathered and thereafter stored at very low temperatures in tanks of liquid nitrogen waiting to be reprogrammed into stem cells for optimal preservation over a long period (see cryopreservation). Some facilities also collect and cryopreserve plant material (usually seeds).

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen zoo
• Page 268 - Kolbert, E., 2014, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History: Henry Holt & Company, New York, 319p.