Woolly Mammoth cloning project has begun

[some new guy 384]

A group of Russian and South Korean researchers has begun their attempt to clone a woolly mammoth, starting by extracting DNA from a spectacularly well-preserved specimen discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2013. The project is led by Hwang Woo-Suk, a Korean cloning scientist who was the focus of a scandal in 2006 involving fraudulent research on human stem cells. Hwang has had success with animals, however, reportedly creating the world's first cloned dog and several cloned coyotes.

The research team, from the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation and Russia's North-Eastern Federal University, began this week to extract DNA from the leg of the long-frozen animal. The news was reported by the university and the Siberian Times.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/scientists-take-dna-sample-mammoth-leg-cloning-project-n324561

BEST - Ron

[George Ford 1,294]

Well I hope they do.. But it seems every 3 years or so there is a press item talking about this exact same thing yet nothing ever happens. I remember the 'making a mammoth using DNA with elephants story' for around 20 years now.

[DefenceMinisterMishkin 5,405]

A mammoth?

Let's just skip straight to the good stuff! T-Rex FTW!

[Lucas Cooper Merrin 2,728]

i find this prospect intriguing and exciting, if successful it could open huge possibility for many extinct fauna

There will always be morality issues but i do believe that we need to push boundaries to proceed and advance

[Lucas Cooper Merrin 2,728]

A mammoth?

Let's just skip straight to the good stuff! T-Rex FTW!

or a hybrid predatory dinosaur!

[Sundew 2,929]

i find this prospect intriguing and exciting, if successful it could open huge possibility for many extinct fauna

There will always be morality issues but i do believe that we need to push boundaries to proceed and advance

A mammoth is pretty cool but how about a Smilodon fatalis! Nice kitty!

[SameerPrehistorica 403]

A mammoth?

Let's just skip straight to the good stuff! T-Rex FTW!

I guess it's because starting from a vegetarian might have seemed fine for them and also the Woolly Mammoth is the famous of all Mammals.It's popularity is just behind T.Rex.

[Lucas Cooper Merrin 2,728]

I think i would have started on something that we caused to dissappear! Like the passenger pigeon or the Thylacine! I think that would generate more public support and less moral controversy,

[Aardvark-DK 277]

And it has fur, guess it will roam the plains of Northern Europe...wait...not many plains left...

[DefenceMinisterMishkin 5,405]

It's just a fluffy elephant! I want T-Rex dammit!

[JinxDeMynx 210]

EVERYBODY RUN!!!!!

[Atuke 538]

I think i would have started on something that we caused to dissappear! Like the passenger pigeon or the Thylacine! I think that would generate more public support and less moral controversy,

I'm with you on the thylacine, although I believe they are still with us.

[Atuke 538]

I feel it's modern man's responsibility to bring the creatures back from the dead that we decimated. All of them. Including Neanderthals. Time to right our wrongs.

[trancelikestate 155]

If they add mammoth DNA to an elephant embryo would the result be a creature with mixed DNA or actually 100 percent mammoth like they used to be?

[paperdyer 1,589]

I think i would have started on something that we caused to dissappear! Like the passenger pigeon or the Thylacine! I think that would generate more public support and less moral controversy,

Nah - Who'd go to a zoo to see a carrier pigeon. A Woolly Mammoth on the other hand.......

[Cookie Monster 6,829]

A group of Russian and South Korean researchers has begun their attempt to clone a woolly mammoth, starting by extracting DNA from a spectacularly well-preserved specimen discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2013. The project is led by Hwang Woo-Suk, a Korean cloning scientist who was the focus of a scandal in 2006 involving fraudulent research on human stem cells. Hwang has had success with animals, however, reportedly creating the world's first cloned dog and several cloned coyotes.

The research team, from the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation and Russia's North-Eastern Federal University, began this week to extract DNA from the leg of the long-frozen animal. The news was reported by the university and the Siberian Times.

http://www.nbcnews.c...project-n324561

BEST - Ron

I will put my name down on the list for one of the first to try a mammoth burger!

[Lucas Cooper Merrin 2,728]

I will put my name down on the list for one of the first to try a mammoth burger!

McMammoth with cheese

[maximusnow 226]

T-REX!

[Cookie Monster 6,829]

T-REX!

Please can I have a Tyrannosaurus burger with large fries.

[Aardvark-DK 277]

We only bring the cute ones back, not the ugly ones ! Just like society in general...

On subject of T-Rex...ppl have a hard enough time to cope with the fact that the wolf is back in the nature in many places, so T-Rex ? Ruuuuuuun....and don't hide in the loo....

[Crabby Kitten 1,826]

A mammoth?

Let's just skip straight to the good stuff! T-Rex FTW!

What's up with mammoths?

I like the dinosaurs too but don't want to be forced underground with those everywhere.

[Sundew 2,929]

I think i would have started on something that we caused to dissappear! Like the passenger pigeon or the Thylacine! I think that would generate more public support and less moral controversy,

I think there are problems with both, even if good DNA was available. I don't believe there is an animal closely related enough to the Thylacine to act as a surrogate womb, although the Tasmanian Devil is often cited, so that might be a possibility. As for cloning birds, I don't believe we have an artificial egg yet either.

[bison 2,819]

If they add mammoth DNA to an elephant embryo would the result be a creature with mixed DNA or actually 100 percent mammoth like they used to be?

If they did it in the usual way of cloning, assuming its possible with such an old specimen, the Mammoth DNA would be inserted into an Elephant ovum, which has had its nucleus removed. The new Mammoth would be genetically identical to the donor Mammoth.

I vote for the Carolina Parakeet to be brought back by this method. We are responsible for its extinction. A very beautiful bird.

I don't believe an 'artificial egg' would be needed. Just use the egg of a similarly sized bird, remove the nucleus, and replace it with the DNA of the Carolina Parakeet. This might be easier with a bird than with a mammal. The eggs are so much larger, and so, presumably easier to work with.

The problem would be finding well-preserved Carolina Parakeet DNA, it seems.

[Sundew 2,929]

If they did it in the usual way of cloning, assuming its possible with such an old specimen, the Mammoth DNA would be inserted into an Elephant ovum, which has had its nucleus removed. The new Mammoth would be genetically identical to the donor Mammoth.

I vote for the Carolina Parakeet to be brought back by this method. We are responsible for its extinction. A very beautiful bird.

I don't believe an 'artificial egg' would be needed. Just use the egg of a similarly sized bird, remove the nucleus, and replace it with the DNA of the Carolina Parakeet. This might be easier with a bird than with a mammal. The eggs are so much larger, and so, presumably easier to work with.

The problem would be finding well-preserved Carolina Parakeet DNA, it seems.

The Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon probably have little viable DNA in preserved specimens. There is another problem with these species from what I understand; they were communal nesters, when the population got below a certain level they failed to reproduce. So unless you could clone rather large numbers of both males and females, it's probably not likely. I do find it sad that we killed off our only truly native parrot.

[bison 2,819]

Its probably true of any species, that if we want to establish a naturally breeding, viable population, a substantial number of individuals would have to be cloned. There needs to be a certain amount of genetic diversity for the long-term success of a species. The Mammoth cloners may be thinking in terms of only of one or a few individuals, for display and study.