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.
It can come back to life after 40,000 years frozen solid.................
“Yakutian horses are still alive and well...”
Yes they are-I was interested and looked them up on WIKI the 1st time I saw them mentioned on a program on Discovery a few months back-some people in rural Alaska who operate sawmills, cut and sell firewood, trap, etc have those Icelandic horses, also very hardy-a mare of either of those breeds sounds perfect as a surrogate mom for the cloned Stone Age horse...
Here’s something you might be interested in:
http://centerforamericasfirsthorse.org/north-american-colonial-spanish-horse.html
I guess you really CAN blame global warming for something.
Thanks-very interesting-I’ve seen a couple of programs on Animal planet and NatGeo that were about restoring near-extinct horse breeds, and the Spanish Colonial horses were mentioned, along with some breeds in Europe and even Mongolia...
People around here love horses-just about everyone in this little area has at least one-I may do the same in the near future-I haven’t had an opportunity to ride in a couple of years and I miss it-the horses of choice around here are the bigger ones-Quarter Horse, Appaloosa, Palomino, Andalusian etc and all the crossbreeds they make-one neighbor has a Peruvian Paso gelding, and another has a supposedly mostly-Arabian white mare that attracts attention whenever he rides down the road because she is a spirited and beautiful animal-there is also a guest ranch out here that is a Clydesdale breeding ranch, too-talk about expensive to feed...
That’s what people say about the dreadful chupacabra.
Shoe betcha!
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