Russian scientists: We have a "high chance" of cloning a wooly mammoth

[Judi Lynn]

Russian scientists: We have a "high chance" of cloning a wooly mammoth
Today 8:00am

An exquisitely preserved wooly mammoth is currently undergoing an autopsy in Siberia. Some experts believe they'll be able to extract high quality DNA and cells from the remains which could conceivably be used to clone the extinct mammal. The question now is, should we?

Back in May of last year, Russian scientists discovered the remains of the mammoth partially embedded in a chunk of ice at an excavation site on Lyakhovsky Island, the southernmost group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.

The samples were so amazingly well-preserved that fresh flowing blood was found within muscle tissue. Now, some 10 months later, an international team of biologists are conducting a thorough autopsy in Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha Republic (also called Yakutia). The team is comprised of scientists from Russia, the UK, the USA, Denmark, South Korea, and Moldova.

An Incredible Find

As reported by the Siberian Times, the scientists have dissected the mammoth, revealing 43,000-year-old soft tissue that's better preserved than those of a human buried for six months.

More:
http://io9.com/russian-scientists-we-have-a-high-chance-of-cloning-1543713621

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Cool.

[enlightenment]

2. Should we is the right question.

I don't think we should try to do that. Study the remains, sure. Even sequence the genome. But as the article said, while they might be able to recreate a "veritable" mammoth, they cannot recreate the world it lived in, so any study of its behavior would only be a study of that animal's behavior - not any real indication of what how wooly mammoths lived and socialized.

[DetlefK]

10. Your argument makes no sense.

That's like saying that we should stop breeding Pandas because their natural habitat is being destroyed.

[enlightenment]

11. Apparently, you didn't read the article.

My concern is one that is also mooted by those involved in the project.

[bloomington-lib]

3. yes we should

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. How many do you want to bring back?

Are you planning on just one male and a female, and confidently predicting they will be fertile, and able to produce a population without damaging inbreeding? Or do you think they're going to be able to clone several mammoths, all able to breed with each other?

If they have to use elephant DNA to 'fill in the missing sections', what will the animals be like? Where do you propose keeping it?

[Flying Squirrel]

7. On an island, of course

[Reter]

8. Stupid question:

Can mammoths and elephants reproduce? Would it be like a homosapian and a Neanderthal, or more like a homosapian and a gorilla?

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. In between, I think

This page reckons they may have split from elephants about 3 million years ago - more recently than us and gorillas (more like 10 million years, I think), but farther back than Hom. sap. and Neanderthals (500,000 years ago? And they were, at least sometimes, able to interbreed perhaps 50,000 years ago). It might well need some manipulation to get mammoths and elephants to interbreed (with fertile offspring, anyway).

[tavalon]

4. While I wish humans would only play with the science they fully understand, I know we never do,

so this was inevitable and as usual, too early and will likely have consequences that no one could have predicted (stock phrase pulled from the Bush maladministration)

[airplaneman]

5. when I was in college early 1970's

I made a personal prediction I would see both the woolly mammoth and saber tooth tiger brought back to life by cloning in my lifetime. The real ethical question lies with should we do this also with the cro-mangan and neanderthal.
-Airplane

[Bigmack]

12. Hope they get THAT done

before the collapse of civilization, so that once again, there'll be mammoths around WITHOUT homodumbians. Ms Bigmack