Posted on 04/09/2019 10:45:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
JURASSIC Park got a little bit closer to reality today with news that scientists are ‘confident' of cloning a 42,000 year old extinct species. ===============================================================
The ginger-coloured foal died when it was just one or two weeks old, some time during the late Stone Age, around 42,170 years ago.
But its body has been perfectly preserved in near perfect condition in Siberian permafrost, and scientists are optimistic that they will obtain enough genetic material to clone the animal and bring its extinct species back to life.
The joint Russian-South Korean research team is led by South Korean cloning expert Professor Hwang Woo-suk, who is also closely involved in efforts to revive the woolly mammoth using cells taken from features preserved in the Siberian ice.
The foal is an example of the cold-resistant Lenskaya breed which died out some 4,000 years ago.
CLONE: The perfectly-preserved body was found in the Batagai depression in Yakutia (Pic: The Siberian Times)
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MUMMY: A Yakut horse is one of the contenders to act as surrogate to the cloned creature
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"Researchers are confident of success of the project," said a source at the North East Federal University in Yakutsk - the world’s coldest city - which is hosting the work, reports The Siberian Times .
"The attempts will continue until the end of April this year.”
Work is so advanced that the team are already selecting a surrogate mother for the ancient horse.
PRECEDENT: The experiment could pave the way for the reintroduction of the woolly mammoth (Pic: The Siberian Times)
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Russian researcher Dr Lena Grigoryeva said: "There are seven researchers involved in the project on the Korean side and everyone is positive about the outcome."
She said that once successfully cloned, the embryo will be implanted in a Korean horse.
"The Korean horse will fit in perfectly," she said. "They have been used in cloning for a while and the technology is mastered to perfection.
"Besides, the Korean horse is quite ancient too.
"It is a successor of Mongolian horse."
INTERNATIONAL: The team is a collaboration between Korean and Russian scientists (Pic: The Siberian Times)
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Another option under consideration is to use a Yakut horse - a breed native to eastern Siberia which succeeded the Lenskaya species.
Yakut horses are a hardy breed which can survive temperatures as low as minus 60ºC.
PinGGG!...........................
Wow, how eerie that must be...holding a perfectly preserved 42,000 year old dead horse.
Makes you wonder if they start bringing these long-extinct creatures back to life, then will the newly created life then act as the surrogate mother for another creature 50,000 years older? Are they creating the perfect incubator hosts to keep going farther back in time?
42,170 years ago.
But its body has been perfectly preserved in near perfect condition in Siberian permafrost,
Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute (no, that’s not racist).
How as a horse hanging out in Siberian permafrost 42,170 years ago? (Are we sure it wasn’t 42,169 years ago?) If it was permafrost then, and it is now, too, then how’d the little foal get up there?
Yakut horses are a hardy breed which can survive temperatures as low as minus 60ºC.
-76F? MINUS 76 F? I don’t think so...
Who knows what else will eventually be found frozen in ice or permafrost.
The foal of the apocalypse!!!
They have mammoths and some hairy rinos.................
Bringing back extinct species is a terrible idea.
Wait... I’ve seen this movie before and it didn’t end well.
I hope they don’t go the obvious side step and try to clone the ancient bacteria and virus’s on the corpse just to see “if they can”.
Wow. I would have though that the air would freeze their lungs at those temperatures.
Not to mention the blood freezing in their arteries and veins.
What a wonderful world, indeed.
I wonder if they carry any long dead diseases.
Amazing.
why?
Good. It’s about time!
Life...uhhhh....finds a way.
I think people often believe that it’s a dangerous meddling; I often do. But I got to thinking just now that the technology could be important if something really catastrophic were to happen to a crucial species - like bees, for instance...
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