Scientists Aim to Revive the Woolly Mammoth

[Shinx3000]

Source: http://www.livescience.com/technology/050412_mammoth_effort.html

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. You might also be interested in related SF in the News stories: Cloned cats have n+1 lives and Glofish - the first genetically modified pet. Thanks to The Daily Grail for finding this story.

first thing that came to mind was Jurassic park. Not sure if I would actually like mammoths roaming around again, but it would be cool to see them. But I would question this because the enviroment and everything basically has changed since these creatures roamed the earth so, its time to leave past in past where it belongs. Now bringing back to life creatures that have became extinct since around time of Dodo onwards would probably be a better plan if possible, cause thats mans fault they went extinct.

I would like to see if the Irish Elk, the huge deer that once roamed Ireland, but it died because it was a huge deer and it could not sustain its population in food as they required a lot of food, and starved to death.

 

[h1tm0nl33]

why would anyone do that the wooly mammoth died years ago and it should stay dead

 

[Zeta]

First of all, the Wooly Mammoth was one of the first animals caused to go extinct via human actions, so we kind of owe it one, even if we keep it in zoos.

Second of all, this could lead to other discoveries that might eventually give us the power to keep animals from going extinct due to human intervention, which would be a huge ecological boon.

 

[bell02+]

I thought they tried this before with the Saber-tooth Tiger, I don't remember the results but I thought it was successful. (Maybe not, because the news would have been bigger)

That said, I can assure you that it will not be like Jurassic Park because the population that would be revived would not create a sustainable population for the species.

 

[GrnMarvl14]

First of all, the Wooly Mammoth was one of the first animals caused to go extinct via human actions, so we kind of owe it one, even if we keep it in zoos.

Second of all, this could lead to other discoveries that might eventually give us the power to keep animals from going extinct due to human intervention, which would be a huge ecological boon.

Not to mention undo the countless animals whose deaths were largely the cause of human interference (to use a nice word).

Besides, having a live specimen would do wonders for the study of evolution and our understanding of how these animals lived.

 

[Shinx3000]

hmm... I was thinking and yeah it would be nice to see it return, even if a small population was to exist only. One thing I don't really think would be feasible to exist would be the Irish Elk. It would be great to see a deer with 14ft antlers and a hight of 6ft 2, but come rutting season, I'd be far away from that. Humans, shortage of food helped in its extinction... Hunted and because of their size, in winter their propulation died out because of their size and numbers = more than their food, and being the size they were, not enough food was there to feed them.

And actually resurrection extinct animals would be a plus, even though today we must think about preserving the creatures we already have as well.

 

[GreatLiver]

I think it would be really great if they did this just in zoos. I think reintroducing something like a Wooly Mammoth would have a huge effect on the ecosystem in the park where they are planning on reintroducing the animals. The one problem would possibly be that with an animal like a mammoth they may not know entirely how to care for it at zoos and the like from the start. Overall I really think it would be a great help to science if they were able to recreate mammoths, and I mean it'd be fricking sweet to go to a zoo and see a mammoth.

 

[dukeburger]

That said, I can assure you that it will not be like Jurassic Park because the population that would be revived would not create a sustainable population for the species.

That's exactly what the characters who created the park said...

I seem to be in the minority here of thinking that this is a terrible idea. You would be reviving something that missed out on 10,000 years of evolution. While that may not be a lot of time geologically speaking, it's enough that it is still far behind the rest of the changes that happened after it. Recreated mammoths would most likely be extremely difficult to keep healthy. Think of all the diseases that are 10,000 years ahead of them and the fact that virtually none of its original food sources would be available.

Also, there is no proof that mammoths went extinct solely due to human interference. Climate change probably had a lot to do with it. I don't doubt that the strains of human hunting didn't help, but the mammoth was an extremely specialized creature. It was enormous and suited to very cold environments only. It probably would have become extinct by natural causes anyway, and you want to bring back something like that? Even in a controlled environment, it would be difficult to pull off.

While I do think it would be beyond amazing to see a mammoth, and it would benefit scientific research, it's just not fair to the mammoth. However, this is based on the idea that an actual DNA strand could be extracted and then cloned. Based on what the article's method of creating a mammoth is, I don't see how it even makes sense. If you were lucky enough to find one mammoth with viable sperm DNA, and you were able to combine it with a present day female elephant's egg (I seriously don't even know what makes them think that they will get a zygote from that), your result wouldn't even be a mammoth. The idea is to keep breeding with more and more mammoth DNA eventually watering down the elephant genes... but your gene pool would be so ridiculously small, making it near impossible to work due to the severe inbreeding. Can anyone explain how this would be possible? Maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't see it.

 

[Wavy Blue]

Hasn't anyone read Frankenstein? Playing God is bad.

 

[Zeta]

Actually, that wasn't the message of the novel. The message of Frankenstein is that you have to take responsibility for your actions.

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

I thought they tried this before with the Saber-tooth Tiger, I don't remember the results but I thought it was successful. (Maybe not, because the news would have been bigger)

Do you mean the Thylacine? (Also known as the Tasmanian Tiger and the Tasmanian Wolf)

In that case there were preserved specimens, and there was hope that they could clone it, but the DNA proved to be too degraded to do so.

And the mammoth went extinct only a few thousand years ago; the climate hasn't changed too drastically since that time. If they were to be located in their native Siberia, it would be like a summer season for them (from what I know).