In what may be considered an early Easter miracle, an extinct species of native frog has begun its rise from the dead.

Australian scientists have grown embryos containing the revived DNA of the extinct gastric-brooding frog, the crucial first step in their attempt to bring a species back to life.

Extict since 1983: The bizarre gastric-brooding frog.

The team from the aptly named Lazarus project inserted the dead genetic material of the extinct amphibian into the donor eggs of another species of living frog, a process similar to the technique used to create the cloned sheep Dolly. The eggs continued to grow into three-day-old embryos, known as blastulas.

"This is the first time this technique has been achieved for an extinct species," said one of the project scientists, conservation biologist Michael Mahony.