Posted on 04/18/2005 8:08:56 AM PDT by Drew68
Scientists with the Mammoth Creation Project hope to find a frozen woolly mammoth specimen with sperm DNA. The sperm DNA would then be injected into a female elephant; by repeating the procedure with offspring, a creature 88 percent mammoth could be produced within fifty years.
"This is possible with modern technology we already have," said Akira Iritani, who is chairman of the genetic engineering department at Kinki University in Japan and a member of the Mammoth Creation Project. However, the DNA in mammoth remains found to date has been unusable, damaged by time and climate changes. "From a geologist's point of view, the preservation of viable sperm is very unlikely, and this is so far confirmed by the poor condition of cells in the mammoth carcasses," said Andrei Sher, Russian paleontologist and mammoth expert.
Woolly mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago as warming weather reduced their food sources. Although only about a hundred specimens have been found, as many as ten million mammoths are believed buried in permanently frozen Russian soil.
Irtani has already picked out a preserve for living mammoths in northern Siberia; this "Pleistocene Park" would feature extinct species of deer, woolly rhinoceroses and maybe even saber-toothed cats, along with the mammoths.
In his novel Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton popularized the idea of using dinosaur DNA taken from mosquito-like insects trapped in amber to create a Jurassic Park of recreated dinosaurs. Unhappily for the Pleistocene Park planners, both books and all three movies ended badly for most of the participants, including the investors. Also, astute scientists are already pointing out that these experiments would merely create mammoth-like creatures, not mammoths themselves. This wasn't pointed out until the third movie in the Jurassic Park series.
Read more at Woolly Mammoth Resurrection.
I can handle a T-Rex, but if they bring back velociraptors they will be gambling in the future of human's on this planet.
Siberia is a BIG place. Some 1/10 of all land on Earth. And it gets very cold there, cold as in 100 degrees-below-zero type of cold. And it can go from cold to freeze-your-butt-off cold in just a few hours.
In Siberia in the spring you can go from daisy-growing temperatures to lake-freezing temperatures in a matter of hours.
> Funny how "a region fairly devoid of life" was home to millions of Woolly Mammoths!
Siberia is a big place, and millenia are a long time.
> It's your arguments that are "fairly devoid of life!"
Lame. Would you agree that the Sahara is "fairly devoid of life?" How many millions of dead human bodies would be found if you went digging there?
It would be neat, but it doesn't serve much purpose. I'd rather work on bringing back the great herds of buffalo.
There are no turkey buzzards or catfish north of the Arctic Circle.
Good times. People think they have problems with mountain lions and wolves today. Try fighting off a bear with legs like a horse and 30% bigger than a grizzly.
Interestingly enough, the velociraptors in Jurrasic Park were actually a different species that have a less-cool-sounding name. Velociraptors were only about 6 feet long (including the tail) and weighed about as much as a labrador retriever. With some selective breeding to weed out undesirable traits, they might make good pets.
I've seen flowers growing by frozen lakes on numerous occasions. The ground around the lake thaws out before the lake does. I've never seen daisies though, usually blue-bells or trilliums.
> I'd guess not many undevoured by carrion-eaters
There are not many carrion eaters in the desert, because there's not that much to eat. Just as there aren't that many carrion eaters in the bottoms of frozen lakes or burrowing through permafrost.
No comment.
... He speculated that the Earth was moved in its orbit by interaction with other comets or planets. The mammoths became extinct when Siberia was suddenly thrust into the artic circle after the axis of rotation was shifted to the present day 23 1/2 degrees.
There are examples of tree-rings in petrified wood back to at least 90 Mya. Since there were seasons then, any shift in the axis would have had to occur before before that time.
A much better explanation considering what's been found in frozen mammoth stomachs. Whatever killed mammoths must have happened suddenly. Otherwise, the mammoths would have migrated. Also, the frozen mammoths likely died from drowning and freezing because they are preserved so well.
A mammoth's stomach is basically storage bin for masticated vegetation, not much digestion occurs there. Finding "fresh" matter in the stomach doesn't necessarily indicate a sudden demise.
Modern elephants are extremely susceptible to toxins from molds and fungi. Assuming mammoth share the same characteristic, a climate change that encouraged the growth of these molds (or a new strain) would seem to me a more reasonable explanation than flash-frozen mammoth.
Yes, but he was an amusing idiot. Didn't you enjoy the bit about Venus passing close to Earth, and hydrocarbons being pulled from the venuvian atmosphere to our planet, being somehow converted to carbohydrates, and then falling as "manna from heaven" to feed Moses and the Israelites?
(I got a good chuckle out of it...)
"Don't mess with the squirrel's nuts"
Hmm.. The poor dodo wouldn't survive too long in that crowd. LOL
When I awoke, a Dire Wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin!
Was grinning at my window
All I said was
"come on in; don't murder me"
I could do without the Dire Wolf, thank you. :-)
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