Posted on 03/16/2014 10:39:35 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Woolly mammoths are coming back, say cloning scientists
In what sounds like it could be the plot for the next Jurassic Park movie, a team of scientists in Siberia says there's a 'high chance' that they will be able to clone a woolly mammoth.
The breakthrough comes as a result of last year's discovery of an incredibly well-preserved mammoth carcass, frozen in the permafrost of Siberia's Malolyakhovskiy island. The scientists estimate that the animal is about 43,000 years old, and was 50-60 years old when it died in distress after getting stuck in the ice. In the ten months since the discovery, the international team has been carefully thawing out various parts of the animal to extract tissue and blood samples, and they say the results are remarkable.
Woolly mammoths became extinct over 4,000 years ago, but we have been able to learn a lot about them through discoveries like this one. Radik Khayrullin from the Russian Association of Medical Anthropologists says that this discovery is so well-preserved that they should be able to take things to a whole new level. Viktoria Egorova, chief of the Research and Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory of the Medical Clinic of North-Eastern Federal University, says that they have found haemolysed blood containing erythrocytes, along with migrating cells in the lymphoid tissue, all key to making the cloning process work.
Should they decide to go ahead with trying to create a clone, Khayrullin says that the resulting animal will not be identical to what used to walk the Earth. For starters, they will be using a female elephant as a surrogate mother. Then of course there are a host of ethical questions that need to be answered. Khayrullin says that they are not trying to play God, but that it's important to have the right motives. "We must have a reason to do this, as it is one thing to clone it for scientific purpose, and another to clone for the sake of curiosity." In other words, they should only do it to advance scientific understanding, not just because they think it would be a neat thing to do.
Let's just hope they don't run into some rich guy who wants to make a male and female pair, so he can put them on display in an island amusement park.
I don’t see the harm-it is pretty much a furry elephant. If they could be sheared every Spring, that wool would make a lot of pricey rugs...
“Cloned Mammoths also would be different in behavior, since they would not have mammoth parents to raise them.”
Having PARENTS doesn’t matter, Silly! It takes a VILLAGE (i.e. Mother Government) to raise a Mammoth these days!
*SMIRK*
They would be a great addition to any Zoo—and if they could be trained—any circus. We could learn alot and they may even taste good.
Crichton’s fiction was SPOT ON in so many areas! *SHUDDER*
Sure miss that guy...
I assume the dude with the Bosch demolition hammer drill is doing some serious tissue sampling and that is why he’s wearing a particulate mask to avoid contamination. Nice try, but when I use that sucker I always have PPE for the eyes, too. Nothing like a tissue fragment or spatter of body fluids to get whatever Jumbo might be carrying. Heck, even dentists suit up these days.
“OK, but you have to use a spear.”
A spear gun!
Whoa! Is that guy drilling a woolly mammoth?
Is that his family?
Cool.
0bama supporters
Fus....ROH DAH!
Ron Perlman, the only one in the cast that didn’t need makeup.
Hardly. They are hunters, providing food for everyone, including the Obama supporters taking up space in their cave.
Not necessarily I want to see a full frontal of MS Chong.
Bring back T-Rex and sabre toothed tigers!
Rae Dawn was a modern human prototype in that movie; she had been captured by Neanderthals and was being kept tied to a tree for later consumption. A male tied with her had an arm missing, which was shown cooking in the Neanderthals’ fire. That was a memorable movie except for the title. Something about fire, I think.
Probably because she was the only non fat broad in the Ville.
Probably drilling into the bone for a marrow sample, protected better than other DNA.
Search For Fire.
Just BINGed it up; Quest For Fire.
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