Resurrecting Mammoths
Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 1/17/2011
Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.
Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years. The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. “Preparations to realise this goal have been made,” Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told the mass-circulation daily. Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant’s egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, the report said. The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant’s uterus in the hope that the animal will eventually give birth to a baby mammoth.
The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out with the last Ice Age. Some mammoth remains still retain usable tissue samples, making it possible to recover cells for cloning, unlike dinosaurs, which disappeared around 65 million years ago and whose remains exist only as fossils Researchers hope to achieve their aim within five to six years, the Yomiuri said. The team, which has invited a Russian mammoth researcher and two US elephant experts to join the project, has established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells, previously an obstacle to cloning attempts because of the damage cells sustained in the freezing process.
Another Japanese researcher, Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, succeeded in 2008 in cloning a mouse from the cells of another that had been kept in temperatures similar to frozen ground for 16 years. The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of a dead mouse and planted it into the egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the birth of the cloned mouse. Based on Wakayama’s techniques, Iritani’s team devised a method to extract the nuclei of mammoth eggs without damaging them. But a successful cloning will also pose challenges for the team, Iritani warned. “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 said. “After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors.” More than 80 percent of all mammoth finds have been dug up in the permafrost of the vast Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia.
Exactly why a majority of the huge creatures that once strode in large herds across Eurasia and North America died out towards the end of the last Ice Age has generated fiery debate. Some experts hold that mammoths were hunted to extinction by the species that was to become the planet’s dominant predator — humans. Others argue that climate change was more to blame, leaving a species adapted for frozen climes ill-equipped to cope with a warming world.
Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/17/researchers-aim-resurrect-mammoth-years/
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It sounds magical to get mammoths back to life, every animal is precious on earth. But I’m wondering is this natural? I feel that what we can do is actually focus on preventing other animals from going extinct. Many of them are threatened because of human activities. Before we are going to clone another animal, we should first look at what is happening around. Create and destroy at the same time is pointless.
The woolly mammoth vanished from the Earth 4,000 years ago, but now scientists say they are on the brink of resurrecting the ancient animals. Interesting …these could help preserve the Asian elephant, which is endangered. Scientists ,researchers and maybe geneticist might face a long journey to create the cell of a mammoth and to resurrect an ancient animals. It’s a up hill task which is challenging for any of them. Regardless of whoever manages to create one first, it will be historic cloning or resurrecting .
Thank you for sharing this amazing news.
this news was in year 2011, apparently they are not successful yet in cloning the mammoth, I just did a quick search, it need another year or two to be successfully clone the mammoth.
But is this really a good idea to bring an extinct animal to life? every living being exist and extinct for a reason, when today’s world environment is not suitable to those animals, bringing them to life will just create more unnecessary suffering. Somehow or rather, I do hope this project will not be a success, because if they successfully bringing mammoth to life, I’m sure next they will try to clone other extinct animals like Dinosaur?
What do the scientists plan to do if they were successful in cloning a mammoth? Would it survive in this present day environment and if it did, it would highly be kept as another zoo exhibit.
Looks like the movie, Jurassic Park and it’s sequels may come alive. What if science become more advanced and have the technology to clone the DNA of dinosaurs? Then the real possibility may arise to keep these once extinct animals on an island. Welcome to Jurassic Park.
In this modern age, human has using science to enginering DNA to reprodure animal cell. Which mean with edvance technology human even can bring life again from ancient animal like mammoth alive. Which quit creepy in the way. In mankind did not create grobal warming cause others spicies has wipe out slowly in this earth. I hope mankind can realise every being are equal living in this earth and not harm each others.
Technology by human is great at the same time it’s scary and creepy. We do not know what are people doing out there secretly with science and technology to invent things that could bring a lot of benefits and profits for oneself but bring harms to many.
I hope all the great brains to use their intelligent and hardwork to bring only benefits to all and the earth and nothing else.
This is proved of new science technologies are so advanced that resurrections on extinct mammals were carried out. Though improvement of science technology is very impressive, but in long run it may lead to other direction such as resurrections on humans like cloning. In my opinion, it discouraged to have human cloning as this will lead disharmony among many religious believers and as well as welfare.
It seems kind of scary to imagine bring back to life animals who haven’t been around for 10,000 years! On the other hand, so many animals are on the red list now, either because they are threatened to die out or known to have died out already.
So much effort, time and money has been put into this research. We should be more aware about our environment and protect animals and nature and how precious it is.
Thank you for sharing this amazing research work.
Science is really amazing. Through the knowhow of the scientifically inclined, we could, one day very soon, walk among (or at least kind-of near for fear of being trampled to death) among the mammoths.
There are so many espect for consideration ok bringing this ancient animal back into our time. There are three main ways of bringing back extinct species, according to the Stanford researchers: backbreeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. With backbreeding, scientists use a living species that is genetically similar to the extinct species, and selectively breed it for the traits of the now-extinct species. Genetic engineering depends on existing DNA samples of the extinct species; scientists could bring them back to life by targeting and replacing specific genomic sequences in a closely-related living species. Finally, if viable cell nuclei from the extinct species are available, it can be cloned using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer—a tested but as-of-yet unsuccessful method for extinct species.
The problem if bringing back this animal, when humans introduce or reintroduce a species to a new environment (and remember, environments change over time), havoc is often the result.
Now imagine herds of mammoths running amok. Could happen. You never know. If that’s what’s in store for us down the line, scientists will have to find a predator to keep the mammoth populations in check — or from migrating to warmer, dense-with-human climate zones as creatures that are a mix of mammoth and Asian elephant might prefer hotter locales.
Based on the current state of the science, the Stanford researchers distill de-extinction down to five pros and five cons:
Benefits:
– Scientific knowledge: De-extinction could offer insights into evolution and natural resources that are currently unavailable to us.
– Technological advancement: De-extinction could be a big step forward for genetic engineering.
– Environmental benefits: Threatened or damaged ecosystems could be restored with the help of certain now-extinct species.
– Justice: If people pushed plant and animals species into extinction, perhaps we owe it to these species to try and bring them back.
Wonder: How cool would it be to see extinct species alive and kicking again?
Objections:
– Animal welfare: People could be exploiting animals for solely human purposes, and may cause individuals of the de-extinct species harm.
– Health: Species could carry retroviruses or pathogens when brought back to life.
– Environment: De-extinct species would be alien and potentially invasive; their habitats and food sources have changed, so their roles in these changed ecosystems could be too.
Political: De-extinction may change priorities in other fields of science, such as medical research and the conservation of currently endangered species.
Moral: Is de-extinction playing god, or just plain wrong? It may also have unforeseen consequences.
Interesting how science is developing. So many new things are being discovered everyday. Scientists are able to clone a sheep so I w
am sure this will also be another exciting research and development. Another step into major life changing experience. Imagine being able to see a live mammoth. Many will oppose to this idea but I find it rather interesting, scientifically. To be able to bring back history! Kudos to the hardworking scientists making new discoveries everyday.
This is so cool, i would love to see a real life mammoth. I would just be picturing a hairy elephant. Haha. But still, it would be really cool to see one, And i can only think about how hard it would be for all the people trying to do such an amazing thing as this. I wish good luck to them and may their experiment be successful.
I think this is really amazing and that it would be cool for wooly mammoths to be recreated into our world. However, the mammoths will probably die from either heat due to global warming or they will die from excessive poaching. Imagine how popular Mammoth fur and meat would be on the black market.
Another cool thing to note is that scientists are also reverse-reengineering chickens and ostriches to turn into Dinosaurs. Jurrasic park here we come!
And again, just to add. Michael Schumacher won 2 driver’s championships with Renault. It was the shear determination of the driver and the crew. This justifies that motivation towards the advancement of anything is superior to the advancement itself.
In my opinion, scientific advancement is incredible, just as long as the motivation is good. If cloning a mammoth can help the welfare of all living beings, so be it. But if the mammoth manifests and it stops there, please do not bring another being into samsara. Just like in motorsports, me in a ferrari 80% chance of victory against Michael Schumacher in a Perodua. Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari, 8 driver’s championships and 10 constructor’s titles. Michael Schumacher being the right motivation and ferrari being the wonders of technology. Mr. Schumacher, if you ever read this, i mean no offence, i am your greatest fan!! 🙂
We are going into a new age with technology to bring back extinct mammoth with modern day technology. That is extracting cells from long dead mammoth and injecting them into elephants for them to produce a replica of the long gone mammoth. I don’t think there is any wrong in this scientific research as killing are not involved. The elephants are not killed and the mammoth are long dead when the cells are taken from them. Its another project of cloning which has been successful. This is revival of the old age. Like in fashion olden times dressing are coming back into modern times again.
I do not understand why they want to resurrect a mammoth which has been extinct for so long. It will just be another physical form for a consciousness to enter. Well without this mammoth the consciousness can enter other physical form that’s existing. Why resurrect and abuse the mammoth with more pain and suffering just for experiment. Poor mammoth.
How ingenious is the human mind and how misguided it may be. Although I am all for progress and science, I cannot help wondering what the point is, of resurrecting a mammoth when there are endangered species that are not getting due atttention. The cynic in me thinks there is more glory in waiting for a species to be extinct and then try and bring it back to being…rather than focussing on the prevention of a species going extinct during our watch.
What would a Mammoth do in our world other than be a spectacle, a circus to boast of our human achievement?
Human beings are the only species known to be hell-bent on destroying its own environment. We are the only ones who have yet to learn to co-exist with our environment. I don’t even know what my environment is?
I see concrete, mortar, plastic, electrical things and a whole lot of man-made objects…none of which i can eat, none of which sustains me in the real sense.
-What us the karma of a species hell-bent on destroying itself?
Dear Rinpoche, What is your opinion of this action of reviving species from animal realm from Buddhism prespective.
I think it is ok if there’s a purpose…otherwise it is another body for another consciousness to enter and ‘nothing’ more.
Jurasic park teacher if we can think it we can make it happen no matter what ?
lets hope we can only think good things from now on so all of our babies can live in this Kechara( heavan on earth in happiness and peace forever from now. a small question, if one were to have been an independant student tirelessly seeking the truth of all schools of all things and came up with the conclusion one is everything that ever was and one is everthing that every will be so one must be the best he/she can be so the things that become will be better for everyone and this conclusion was drawn by watching animals insects people religions war, killing loving and then one looked for the most compassionately profitable way of carving a clear voice for the future of ones family where would one begin ? Andrew Hibberd
no elephant should be subjected to such experiments . the mammoth has been extinct for 65 million years. why would we need to know why ?? for what purpose are we resurrecting the mammoth ? this is horrible !! help and save the unsuspecting elephants who have to be sacrificed to this human vainglorious consumption of science and knowledge !!
I always hear about how the pro-Christians get really offended by scientist dwelling in the art and possibility of cloning as they feel that life shouldn’t be ‘created’, and that it should be (and only be) through Gods’ will.
Am I wrong to assume that the Buddhist approach on this would be almost neutral? Would it just be like having another animal in the animal realm – and for whoever to be reborn in that animal body, it would be based on their on individual karma?
I find it terrible if any animal should have to suffer through cloning experiments, as I’m sure that thousands of animals must have been born deformed in their trial and error processes…however, the end product of say cloning a Mammoth – it’s not a very wow occurrence in a Buddhist perspective, is it?
I can’t lie…I’m quite curious to see what it looks like. Ice Age 2 comes to life 🙂
Thank you,
Jean Mei