Mammoths may roam again after 27,000 years

Times on line/ Drudgereport ^ | Aug. 15, 2006 | Mark Henderson, Science Editor Times on line

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

BODIES of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.

Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out.

Several well-preserved mammoth carcasses have been found in the permafrost of Siberia, and scientists estimate that there could be millions more.

Last year a Canadian team demonstrated that it was possible to extract DNA from the specimens, and announced the sequencing of about 1 per cent of the genome of a mammoth that died about 27,000 years ago.

...

[RightWhale]

The Pittsburgh Zoo has no animals older than 3000 years.

[RightWhale]

although some of the sponsors are older.

[Lazamataz]

The Pittsburgh Zoo has no animals older than 3000 years.

They had this one Naked Mole Rat that I saw last time I was there, 6,300 years ago.

[Ole Okie]

Here's a hint for free: Because a species is extinct doesn't mean that it went extinct millions of years ago.

Hey, anybody seen a dodo bird recently?

[orionblamblam]

> So man and mammoth walked the earth together, wow, Dawin must be rolling over in his grave.

One is left to wonder why you might think that.

[RipSawyer]

In the Pittsburg Zoo, if I'm not mistaken.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I clearly remember that back in the sixties all drunk rednecks (except yours truly) were jumpin' & jerkin' to Sam The Sham's legendary tribute to the Wooly Bully. Therefore we know that Sam the Sham was familiar with mammoths which therefore must have existed during the era of Haley's Comets.

[dread78645]

"A kajillion bajillion dollars years." placemark

[RogueIsland]

That top photo looks like Great Cthulhu is attacking an elk.

[Reily]

"I have seen the Elephant"
That expression was also used in the Civil War as slang meaning "I have seen combat!"

[Reily]

Also trappers on the Appalachian frontier would find the occasional mammoth vertebrae to use as camp stools. Apparently the stories impressed Thomas Jefferson enough (Plus he unearthed a mammoth skeleton on his property!) to tell Lewis & Clark to be on the look out for some.
There a small bit of 'eye witness hearsay' that the Giant Ground Sloth was around in Patagonia at the time of the Spanish conquest.
However as far as I know as with the mammoth there hasn't been a single specimen found yet that puts it in that time frame.
Also on Kamchatka Peninsula there have been reports (1920's was the last serious one!) of a 'Giant Bear' speculated to be a remnant Ice Age Cave Bear population. One hunter even shot one but left the carcass out on the tundra. (These bears are like the size of a large horse at the shoulder !)
The environments that these 'sightings' occur do correlate with what we think we know about the environments when these animals were common. These stories are fun to talk about, but until their is a specimen , its simply camp fire stories.

[orionblamblam]

> That top photo looks like Great Cthulhu is attacking an elk.

Never one to pass up an opportunity...

Makes you realize jsut how similar Deaniacs and Creationoids really are. Their areguements pretty much just boil down to "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!" with the same fervor.

[AmericanRepublican]

Yes! Mammoths! Woo! That's gonna be awesome! I've always wanted to see one of those! Yes, yes, yes!

Just think! First Mammoths, then Sabre-Tooth Tigers! Yes! They'll totally rip the sh!7 out of those p^$$y Leopards! Woo!

And after that, we can do a T-Rex! Yeah man! And then Raptors! Yeah! Clone about five of those babies and let them lose at the DNC!!! And then have them breed and then let them rip roar through the entire friggin country! Woo!

And then ship build a huge ark, put those mothers on, ship them over to Iran... woo! Jurrassic friggin park baby! Woo!

Now if you excuse me... I'll be in the attic sh177ing my pants.

[RightWhale]

So man and mammoth walked the earth together

They did. Also sabertooth tiger.

[Clemenza]

Maybe because their "scientists" are quacks who get their degrees from correspondence courses run from a ranch house in the southeast.

[b_sharp]

"First evolutionist said that the mammoth has been extinct for billions of years, then it was millions of years and now it is but 27,000 years.

"How much longer before they are down to the time line of the Creationist? Under 10,000 years anybody?

On top of this being a silly (and unfounded) thing to say the time a species goes extinct is really irrelevant to the SToE. What does matter is when it originated.

If we found the bones of one of the 7 or so species belonging to the genus Mammuthus among the bones of one of the 9 or 10 species of the genus Dimetrodon within a stratum dated 40,000 years ago we would be confused but not shocked. (well we might be shocked but not seriously so). It would simply mean that the Dimetrodon lived longer than first expected. If we however found the mammoth and Dimetrodon fossils in a stratum dated 280 million years ago it would be much more than confusing. It would throw the idea of common descent into severe doubt, at least when considering mammals.

It has to be mentioned that the SToE has much more than just the fossil record as evidence; in fact DNA studies are just as important.

"How creationist loose in court is beyond me."

They argue science using religious beliefs.

[ReignOfError]

"I have seen the Elephant"
That expression was also used in the Civil War as slang meaning "I have seen combat!"

In 19th century slang, it meant basically "been there, done that." Usually spoken by dirty, weary folks heading east to bright-eyed, enthusiastic folks heading west. My rough guess is that it goes back to P.T. Barnum's display of Jumbo, where "seeing the elephant" meant you'd pretty much seen it all.

[ReignOfError]

Hey, anybody seen a dodo bird recently?

Define "recently." On a geologic scale, anything that could be described first-hand in English is pretty recent.

[dread78645]

My rough guess is that it goes back to P.T. Barnum's display of Jumbo, where "seeing the elephant" meant you'd pretty much seen it all.

Close, but it was in use before Barnum bought Jumbo in 1882.

This is an American version of the older British expression to see the lions. This phrase, meaning the same thing or, in later use, meaning to see something of celebrity or note, is a reference to lions that were kept in the Tower of London and were an early tourist attraction. Those who came to London from the country were often taken to see the lions in the Tower. From Robert Greene's 1590 Greenes Neuer Too Late:

Francesco was no other but a meere nouice, and that so newly, that to vse the olde prouerbe, he had scarce seene the Lions.

(Sources: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Historical Dictionary of American Slang)

-- Word origins

[ReignOfError]

That's what I get for spouting off without doing research. The usage clearly pre-dates Jumbo, so we can call the myth busted.

Jamie and Adam will now blow something up, which may or may not be informative, but will be a lot of fun.

[Ole Okie]

Oh, within plus or minus a nanosecond or two. :^)