Posted on 12/06/2011 12:40:09 PM PST by Fractal Trader
They may be able to get some sort of result with the DNA from cell nuclei, but what are they going to do about reproducing the DNA in the mitochondria?
They weren’t small....Elephas maximus!
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/elephantus.html
http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hannibal/alps.html
http://www.science20.com/rugbyologist/elephant_directed_research
I’d agree with you if the cloning were of the short-faced bear or the sabertooth cat.
“They weren’t small....Elephas maximus!”
Well I’m far from dogmatic on the subject. I was relating something I heard recently, probably on one of John Batchelor’s broadcasts. IIRC his guest said that Hannibal had used an elephant native to North Africa’s mountains that is now extinct, but I have no idea what evidence he had to back up this claim.
This may be the “small elephant” of Hannibal; the North African Elephant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_Elephant
“The North African Elephant (Loxodonta africana pharaoensis) was a possible subspecies of the African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana), or possibly a separate elephant species, that existed in North Africa until becoming extinct in Ancient Roman times. These were the famous war elephants used by Carthage in the Punic Wars, their conflict with the Roman Republic. Although the subspecies has been formally described,[1][2] it has not been widely recognized by taxonomists. Other names for this animal include the North African Forest Elephant, Carthaginian Elephant, and Atlas Elephant. Originally, its natural range probably extended across North Africa and down to the present Sudanese and Eritrean coasts.”
“Carthaginian frescoes [3] and coins minted by whoever controlled North Africa at various times show very small (perhaps 2.5 metres or 8 feet 2 inches at the shoulder) elephants with the large ears and concave back typical of modern Loxodonta. The North African Elephant was smaller than the modern African Bush Elephant (L. a. africana), probably similar in size to the modern African Forest Elephant (L. cyclotis). It is also possible that it was more docile than the African Bush Elephant, which is generally untamable, allowing the Carthaginians to tame it by a method now lost to history. Modern scholarship has disputed whether or not Carthaginian elephants were furnished with turrets in combat; despite assertions to the contrary, the evidence indicates that African forest elephants could and did carry turrets in certain military contexts.[”
“I wish everyone would curb their enthusiasm for making fantasies real.”
Then you may as well declare entrepreneurship and innovation dead. Dare to dream.
Is this really expected to end in anything but tears?
Is this really expected to end in anything but tears?
Sorry for the double-post. I guess my finger trembled on the touch screen?
AHA! You left out the most important part of the sentence— “When I think of the money that is going to be spent on this impractical research, most of it probably coming from the taxpayers in one way or another”—a cheap rhetorical trick of excising one part of a sentence to change the overall thrust of my comment.
However, I forgive you. You think cloning of mammoths is entrepreneurship and innovation. I think it is a waste of resources. If you really think cloning is a good thing, then by all means let’s clone humans.
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