Woolly Mammoth could be cloned by 2016

[WoIverine]

Cool and all, but...why?

[TheSpoonyOne]

@ Spid3rCyd3

Why not?

[WoIverine]

@ Spid3rCyd3

Why not?

*Shrug* fair enough, I'll roll with that.

[Druidus-Logos]

Cool and all, but...why?

Any number of potential reasons. Just as an example, why not use the mammoth as a test species to learn how we can integrate animals that we've driven extinct back into the ecosystem.

I don't promote re-integrating all species, but if we played a role in their extinction, I definitely think we should remedy it if we can. The more diversity we have in our biosphere, the healthier it is. People generally underestimate the value of repairing or sometimes even just preserving it; but it's something that generations from now our descendants will thank us for.

[Bavarian Raven]

Any number of potential reasons. Just as an example, why not use the mammoth as a test species to learn how we can integrate animals that we've driven extinct back into the ecosystem.

I don't promote re-integrating all species, but if we played a role in their extinction, I definitely think we should remedy it if we can. The more diversity we have in our biosphere, the healthier it is. People generally underestimate the value of repairing or sometimes even just preserving it; but it's something that generations from now our descendants will thank us for.

this - the more diverse an ecosystem (most often) the more healthy/stable it is.

[Taita]

Elephants are having a hard time already with people invading their territory why bring another even larger animal into the picture.  I think their time would be better spent trying to figure out how to keep animals on the endangered species list from becoming extinct.  I have to admit it would be nice to see one of those magnificent creatures but their time has come and gone. <br>

I doubt any breeding herd would make it to the wild to live, if there are more than 1 even attempted. The money invested and return on investment by people wanting to see them makes me think any mammoth(s) will be in a zoo/preserve of some sort.

Mark

[sergeantflynn]

No matter how many are made , they`ll all end up in a zoo . Given a choice then extinction would be chosen by 9 out of 10 ...........

[Rhincewind]

to all the people who think this is a great idea I say this..

Where would you put the mammoth onece it was an adult and what could you possibly do with one. We should be trying to save the spieces we are loosing already before we can bring back one that may not even be sutible for any enviroment anymore

[Druidus-Logos]

to all the people who think this is a great idea I say this..

Where would you put the mammoth onece it was an adult and what could you possibly do with one. We should be trying to save the spieces we are loosing already before we can bring back one that may not even be sutible for any enviroment anymore

Nice try, but northern Asia and northern Canada remain perfect habitats for cold-adapted elephantids.

No matter how many are made , they`ll all end up in a zoo . Given a choice then extinction would be chosen by 9 out of 10

I don't think that's true, and I don't think you've detailed why you think that'd happen. Zoos could happen; but they don't have to.

[Bavarian Raven]

I don't think that's true, and I don't think you've detailed why you think that'd happen. Zoos could happen; but they don't have to.

Siberia is a big place - the problem is though, in the wild, some poacher would probably wipe them :/

Though I could see them dedicating some remote corner of the canadian arctic (somewhere in Nunavet or the such, as a mammoth preserve)

~

on a bit of a less serious note:

you bred mammoths just isnt as ominous sounding

Edited December 6, 2011 by Bavarian Raven

[LotusChild86]

oh i cant wait to hunt one

[Sevastiel]

Lot-o-meat on a Mammoth. Good eaten for a long time.

[Muenzenhamster]

They've been talking about this for years; if they're going to do it they need to hurry up and do it. I'm just not so sure that it would be ethical to reintroduce an animal adaped to ice age conditions into a world that is warming so rapidly that current cold-adapted animals (polar bears) are struggling to survive. That said, I'd love to see one "in the flesh," so to speak. Hey, if we can successfully farm them, people could even get a taste of our ancestors' diet. Mmm, mammoth burgers... Hey, save me some trunk!

[Muenzenhamster]

I'll have a second helping of spelt porridge and einkorn gruel, the emmer wheat was okay, but I've had enough. Oh, and you can give the fermented mare's-milk to the dog, I can't stand another drink. Tell Grug to see if he can trap us some more snow-hares for tomorrow, but bring sharp flints next time, and would it kill you to put some salt in this stuff?!

Edited December 7, 2011 by Muenzenhamster

[psyche101]

How many elephants will be sacrificed for this project?

Only those that die from childbirth. From the link

Japan's Kinki University will team up to recreate the mammoth using DNA taken from the marrow that is then put into the nuclei of egg cells of common elephants.

[psyche101]

Brilliant, we should invest more money into this type of thing. Less money for war then. Plus Everyone wants to know what they taste like!

Old-time paleontology lore is full of tales in which half-starved explorers or hunters defrost an icebound mammoth carcass, but most of these are impossible to verify and sound far-fetched at best. In a fairly skeptical-seeming 1872 item the New York Times passed along a report from some French adventurers trying for the North Pole who claimed to have found in Russia so many well-preserved mammoth specimens that for a time they "lived entirely on mammoth meat, broiled, roasted and baked." The nature novelist James Oliver Curwood, who traveled extensively in northwestern Canada, told the Chicago Tribune in 1912 about dining with Indians who'd happened upon a frozen mastodon (not the same as a mammoth, but close enough for our purposes); he described his steak's color as "deep red or mahogany" and its flavor (somewhat unimaginatively, I'd say) as "old and dry." Accounts once flourished of "mammoth banquets" held in Saint Petersburg and Paris, but most sources now consider these apocryphal.

Even when mammoth meat isn't actually putrid, it still doesn't make great eating. According to Richard Stone's book Mammoth (2001), Russian zoologist Alexei Tikhonov (who figures in articles about the recent Siberian find) once tried a bite and said "it was awful. It tasted like meat left too long in a freezer."

LINK

There you go, now you do not have to wait to find out.

[psyche101]

Personally, I think this is a great idea. IF it is successful, I see much hope for Mike Archers Thylacine project.

[Sundew]

Mammoths were creatures of the arctic tundra and and sub-arctic forests. They had contact with humans who may have contributed to their extinction. The habitat they once lived it has not changed all that much compared to some, because it is quite harsh and rather sparsely populated compared to other areas humans have come to dominate. Musk Oxen were also circumpolar animals that were wiped out over parts of their range. They were reintroduced to northern Russia from north America and have thrived. Wild horses used to roam America long ago, by the time horses arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors, the native horses of America were long gone, but the European horse quickly adapted and filled the niche they had left. Not a perfect match perhaps, but our horse species was also extinct. Wolves were pretty much wiped out from the lower 48 and from Yellowstone National Park. In their absence coyotes took over as the dominate canid, which was not natural to the ecosystem. When wolves were reintroduced to the Park they killed the surplus coyotes and returned the ecosystem to something closer to that before man wiped out the wolves. So if man wiped out (or helped wipe out) the mammoth, then I see nothing wrong with reintroduction to areas where they once lived.

As far as "we could have used this money to cure cancer", we could also use all the money government wastes everyday to cure cancer, or whatever project might benefit society instead of say, buying Snow Cone Machines for the TSA offices. Plus who knows what this technology could be used for, perhaps we can bring back the Thylacine, an animal we killed off less than 80 years ago. Perhaps the research WILL lead to a cure for cancer or some other genetic problem, sometimes you don't know the potential benefits of such research.

Don't forget also, that this may not even work, the DNA may be too degraded, the embryo might not survive or the young may die. And there is still the problem that you have to have at least a pair of mammoths to carry on the species and a lot more if you want to insure genetic diversity to prevent inbreeding. Do we have that many dead mammoths lying around to collect material from?

It would be fascinating to see a resurrected extinct animal, especially such a famous one. Almost as much as discovering life on Mars or Europa. Time will tell.

[The Silver Thong]

Personally, I think this is a great idea. IF it is successful, I see much hope for Mike Archers Thylacine project.

I second that. Why the hell not. Man has created so much death and different ways to kill people, some actualy whine about creating life. Bunch off fools. How many species go extinct every year due to man and people have the nerve to whine. I say we take some of Canada`s military budget aka 65 new f-14s sell one plane and make a thousand sq km pen in the arctic.

For those that think this is wrong, grow up. Jurrasic park was a movie

[Kataliac]

Thats what I was thinking... we could use em for meat.

[The Silver Thong]

Thats what I was thinking... we could use em for meat.

No one eats elephant anymore except for lions and thats a long shot. It would be a chance to bring a non evasive species back from the dead. A 1000 km free range in the arctic would be non evasive.

[Paracelse]

No one eats elephant anymore except for lions and thats a long shot. It would be a chance to bring a non evasive species back from the dead. A 1000 km free range in the arctic would be non evasive.

Actually a chain of "Mammoth Grill" would be nice (for my wallet )

[DKO]

Personally, I think this is a great idea. IF it is successful, I see much hope for Mike Archers Thylacine project

Yes I too wish to see that. A few of the extinct Australian megafauna would be cool too.

[angi chiesa]

I want to live long enough to ee these animals .I hope it works. Most exciting prospect.

[Myles]

I'm happy about this.

I'm somewhat amazed at the amount of people who are using Jurrasic Park as a reason why they should not do this.

This is valuable research if nothing else.