Instead of Jurassic Park, try Pleistocene Park.
A team of scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States hopes to clone a mammoth, a symbol of Earth’s ice age that ended 12,000 years ago, according to a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The researchers say they hope to produce a baby mammoth within six years.
The scientists say they will extract DNA from a mammoth carcass that has been preserved in a Russian laboratory and insert it into the egg cells of an African elephant in hopes of producing a mammoth embryo.
The team is being led by Akira Iritani, a professor emeritus at Kyoto University in Japan. He has built upon research from Teruhiko Wakayama of Kobe's Riken Center for Developmental Biology, who successfully cloned a mouse from cells that had been frozen for 16 years, to devise a technique to extract egg nuclei without damaging them, according to the Yomiuri report.
The U.S. researchers are in vitro fertilization experts. They, along with Kinki University professor Minoru Miyashita, will be responsible for implanting the mammoth embryo into an African elephant, the report said.
"If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed [the mammoth] and whether to display it to the public," Iritani told Yomiuri. "After the mammoth is born, we'll examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."
Perhaps seeing a Mammoth, something we've never seen live, would be a phenomenal experience and would make us more thoughtful about our environment. But, lol, can you imagine, once the human species is extinct, another species cloning us back? That would be a bad mistake.
wow you must really hate yourself
WHAT IF... that's how we got here?? A little bit of intergalactic transportation, cross breeeding with locals, and poof!! UNHAIRY APES WITH UNUSUALLY HI IQ'S!!!
Hahaha... oh woe to the aliens that figure that out!
Two things:
1. Bringing animals back from extinction might induce people not to care about nature so much – after all, we can bring em back right? Why worry?
2. We bred ourselves. Ever hear a girl say "Eww he's too hairy?" I rest my case.
Excellent! Can we bring back Elvis the Pelvis?
I asked for that before but no one wants to see his B movies. His songs were good though.
Ohh – (cue disappointment) I thought they were talking about Robert Maxwell.
Too bad.
I'd pay $1M to go Mammoth hunting.
You ain't got that kind of money.
Hey Dan. Tell ya what -you give me your 1m and we'll go mammoth hunting. Just feel free to start without me. I'll be right there.
Comments like this are why I fully expect that someone would poach the only living mammoth on earth, probably for the ivory.
If mammoths were herd animals, studying the behavior of one (absent the herd) won't get it. Plus – it's not going to be fun for the clone ("Hey, where is everybody?").
there is a high likelihood that it would blend into african elephant habits, basically same genetic makeup. it wont know the difference
I'm amazed to learn that elephants lay eggs!
I'm amazed to learn how hilariously ignorant you are.
Good Grief! DUH!
Yes they do and are extra careful when they sit down on the nest.
Elephants also have wings. They fly using their ears.
Sure they do, baggypants! Haven't you read that classic of naturalist literature, Horton Hatches the Egg? 😉
tastes just like chicken
what happens if they are successful and then clone a 40 ft prehistoric-croc. who would win ? the mammoth
or the croc ?
the odds in vegas would be on the croc !
Crocmoth! I'd go see it.
They should cross breed them and see what they end up with. It surely would be the winner.
It all depends on what season they have the fight. If they have it in the winter the croc, being moderately exothermic and all, would probably not be moving real fast, if at all. If they have it in August in Las Vegas they'd need to shave the mammoth first or it'd overheat. And who would come to see a fight between a crocodile and a naked mammoth?
@Steve.
me.
Next week we're putting 2 Siberian tigers in Yellowstone . . . .
Siberian tigers aren't/wern't native to North America Please play again
Hey arejay – after we put them there why don't you go camping there and let us know if they belong there in the morning
What's it matter if it was or wasn't indigenous to North America?? Nothin' a few Humans can't fix..
Where's Jeff goldblum when you need him.
never do
Altho I believe that the past is the past for a reason I am how ever interested in seeing this creature in action hmmmm ;/
The scientist will get desperate and use their own DNA like in the movie Splice.
Then they will have relations with the mammoth.
lol, yeah that movie was a bit more disturbing than I initially anticipated...
Manmoth. The latest SyFy original 😉
Its already been done. I've seen the results at Wal-Mart
But can the mammoth get it on with a pot bellied pig?
Oh, yes, I believe it can.
It's about time!
its quite interestin to note that in the next 6yrs or thereabout, the earth wil have a new born baby to celebr8 about . Maybe d mammoth will become da 11th wonder.sic
LearnToNotTypeLikeLikeYouSpeak nothing worse than a whiteboy typing like a brother for effect.
Woolly mammoths, dodos, Some of the marsupials, passenger pigeons, and many other extinct species could be cloned, there are enough remnants of them in museums and private collections and, after all, mankind did drive them to extinction. Perhaps we could undo some of the damage done by our ancestors.
the key word here is frozen, without being frozent the DNA is unlikely to be viable after so long.
Also, they can only clone females.