Posted on 12/20/2005 5:56:21 AM PST by Grendel9
(Filed: 20/12/2005)
The first serious possibility that the woolly mammoth, or something like it, could walk on Earth again was raised yesterday by an international team of scientists.
Woolly mammoths died out approximately 10,000 years ago A portion of the genetic code of the mammoth has been reconstructed and, to the surprise of scientists, the team that carried out the feat believes that it will be possible to decode the entire genetic make-up.
The tusked beast stood 12-feet tall, weighed up to seven tons and had a shaggy dark brown coat that hung from its belly.
DNA was extracted from a well-preserved 27,000-year-old specimen found in the Siberian permafrost. So far, about 30 million "letters" of the genetic code have been read, albeit in small pieces, representing around one percent of the entire code.
The team says it could take as little as a year to finish the estimated 2.8 billion-letter code that provides the genetic wherewithal to create the animal.
Scientists in Japan and Russia have announced plans to attempt to clone woolly mammoths with the help of living relatives and, despite scepticism that they will be successful, today's work will renew interest in the idea.
Dr Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University, one of the team that announced the new work in the journal Science, said last night that it may also be possible to genetically alter an elephant to turn it into a mammoth.
The work is described by an international team of researchers, including one from Oxford University, who sequenced a chunk of ancient DNA belonging to the mammoth and "fellow travellers" from its remains, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and plants that lived at the same time as the mammoth.
The team extracted nuclear DNA from the mammoth's jawbone, concentrating it before it was amplified and sequenced by a relatively new technique called pyrosequencing.
The researchers say nearly half of the "metagenome" they sequenced belongs to the mammoth and is very similar to the African elephant.
The techniques produced an impressive amount of nuclear DNA, which is normally less prevalent than mitochondrial DNA - found in the "power packs" of cells and the usual target of such studies - and thought to be more difficult to extract from ancient remains.
Dr Hendrik Poinar, a molecular evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University, said: "To acquire the genome of an extinct species is a rare feat. With this level of genetic data we can begin to look at genes to determine what makes a mammoth a mammoth.
We can finally understand the subtle differences between a mammoth and its closest living relative, the Indian elephant. But more importantly our discovery means that recreating extinct hybrid animals is theoretically possible."
Woolly mammoths, which have become symbols of the Ice Age, died out 10,000 years ago.
Once again doing things we are not suppose to do.
Gee wouldn't that make a beautiful Christmas card. Me standing there by my trophy mammoth, covered in mossy oak holding my Barrett. With one big 'ol smile. I'd have to even send one to Senators Feinstein & Schumer!
But, how would you get that thing tied to the hood of your truck? And do you think the taxidermist would take payments?
I have a great imagination, but I also think there are certain things that we should not mess around with. These animals became extinct for a reason, and that reason may be a disease that we know nothing about. Bringing back a mammoth could bring that disease back, and that could pose some very big problems. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm no expert on this subject, so take what I said with a grain of salt. It's just something to think about.
I think we should clone T-rex or one of the other large pedators and plant them in the western states. They would be a prefect compliment to the wolves there already and, of course, it would be illegal to kill them, because after all they would merely be trying to survive, right?
You MAY have a great imagination, but you have little grasp on biology. To bring back an extinct DISEASE, you'd have to find a sample of it and clone it.
Bringing back the Mammoth, especially with all the evidence that Man hunted the Mammoth to extinction, is repairing an error.
And besides. . . think of the sheer amount of Mammoth Steak and Chops available for your next Bar-b-que !!
ping
I want Mastadons, too. And saber-tooth tigers, and all those weird mammals in that book of prehistoric mammals from when I was a kid.
Giants suck. Go 'Skins!
Hey, now. I live in one of them western states. It's bad enough coming across a cougar when I'm out hiking. A T-rex would be totally over the top!
Then again, we would certainly solve the "T-Rex, was it a predator or was it a scavenger" debate.
" Then again, we would certainly solve the "T-Rex, was it a predator or was it a scavenger" debate."
I know! I'm so fed up with this T-rex scavenger bit. How dare they ruin my imagination.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.