I for one would definitely like to see a prehistoric or extinct animals DLC for this game. I have yet to buy this game. Such a DLC would push me over the edge to buy it.
The argument that you can get prehistoric animals in JWE is pretty much invalid since that is a very different game and it solely focuses on non-avain dinosaurs (with the single exception of Pteranodon as the only pterosaur.) We most likely won't ever see other prehistoric animals like mammals, birds and amphibians in that game.
Jurassic World is also not known for it's accuracy.
/rant
I don't devs warm up to the idea: "if you add this dlc, I maybe buy this game + dlc"
. 15-20 years ago they were more about expansion packs but nowadays a different developer picks up that part. I don't expect devs to add such extensive dlc, a lot of people aren't willing to pay $50,- for dlc. (or even worse the Sims4 approach)
They rather make an entirely new game. Prehistoric Kingdom fills in that gap. I think Marine animals have more chance for this, and I think those chances are slim. I know some people want to mix old/new but that's a very small market.
JWE's game mechanic focuses on researching/cloning fossils, from that POV it wouldn't be that different.. Even reviving extinct fossils is a similar theme.. You can disagree about the era but JWE doesn't pick animals from the Jurassic era only.. And no, I'm not puttin dinos and extinct animals on 1 pile, there's always 1 or 2 people who create that assumption, just to create a made-up argument.. A lot of people said it, but PK looks like the mix of JWE and PZ with quite a few animals from the requested extinct dlc - I would recommend keeping an eye out for that game - even in pre-alpa looks good, very promising and some detailed features.
Even a DLC of just "recently" extinct animals would be amazing. The Dodo, Thylacine, Quagga and even Gigantopithecus are all animals I'd love to see in a game like this. Many animals such as the woolly mammoth and woolly rhino also shared it's environment with mega fauna still alive today. It's the same ecosystem except that we've lost part of it.
The conservation theme can still apply since you can show the amazing variety of the natural world in a game such as this and emphasize the importance of retaining the species we still have.
And the chances are that some of the species featured in this game will be extinct in the next 50 years. Don't just show what we can lose, but also what we've already lost. This would be a great teaching opportunity.
(Wildlife) conservation is actually to prevent species from going extinct.
Extinct animals would be a great teaching opportunity for some people, but most people only care for the zoo part in Planet Zoo. (even don't care about the level of management of PZ).
Those are 2 different interest/passions.
I think if you ask people on the street or players of PZ: what a Thylacine, Quagga and Gigantopithecus is, they don't know but also don't care about this.
Putting something like this in a DLC also makes it optional. People who don't want extinct animals in the game don't have to buy such a DLC.
On most forums people don't want the dev to focus on such DLC but on DLC a lot of people care about. When some people ask for mythical/fantasy animals, suddenly the pro-extinct players start to act the same. And some people consider -cloning/reviving/creating hybrid- exctinct animals as sci-fi and doesn't belong in this game.