Scientists trying to bring back mammoths

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Gaborn

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Mammoths, which went extinct about 10,000 years ago, may once again walk the Earth.

A team of researchers will attempt to resurrect the species using cloning technologies after obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian mammoth research laboratory. It has already established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells.

"Preparations to realize this goal have been made," said Prof. Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University.

Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cells from which the nuclei have been removed to create an embryo containing mammoth genes.

The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant's womb in the hope that the animal will give birth to a baby mammoth.

Researchers from Kinki University's Graduate School of Biology-Oriented Science and Technology began the study in 1997.

On three occasions, the team obtained mammoth skin and muscle tissue excavated in good condition from the permafrost in Siberia.

However, most nuclei in the cells were damaged by ice crystals and were unusable. The plan to clone a mammoth was abandoned.

In 2008, Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of Kobe's Riken Center for Developmental Biology succeeded in cloning a mouse from the cells of mouse that had been kept in deep-freeze for 16 years. The achievement was the first in the world.

Based on Wakayama's techniques, Iritani's team devised a technique to extract the nuclei of eggs--only 2 percent to 3 percent are in good condition--without damaging them.

Last spring, the team invited Minoru Miyashita, a professor of Kinki University who was once head of Osaka's Tennoji Zoo, to participate in the project.

Miyashita asked zoos across the nation to donate elephant egg cells when their female elephants died.

The team also invited the head of the Russian mammoth research laboratory and two U.S. African elephant researchers as guest professors to the university. The research became a joint effort by Japan, Russia and the United States.

If a cloned mammoth embryo can be created, Miyashita and the U.S. researchers, who are experts in animal in vitro fertilization, will be responsible for transplanting the embryo into an African elephant.

The team said if everything goes as planned, a mammoth will be born in five to six years.

"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'll examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."
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Story Here
 
Next up:

141_velociraptor.jpg
 
Gaborn said:
:(
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Fuck that, I didn't know about it and after I saw it here I saw it on Gizmodo as well, so it's pretty new to me.

Amazing if it happens in our lifetime though, but I have a feeling the closer we get to that point, the more 'controversy' there will be. I mean, you know.. 'god wiped them for a reason' etc etc.

Plus there is the non-religious/'moral' side, if we breed them, how would the fit into the natural order of nature? It could seriously fuck up everything, if they were to be 'wild'.
 
Sounds like the plot to some horrible (but awesome at the same time) Scyfy channel movie.

Scientists? check
Russians? check
Large mammoths? check
 
they have to taste great given that they were hunted to extiction

can't wait for them to bring it back, shoot it and then serve it on a nice plate, with lets say rice, I like rice, oh and Medium-well
 
Sentry said:
Fuck that, I didn't know about it and after I saw it here I saw it on Gizmodo as well, so it's pretty new to me.

Amazing if it happens in our lifetime though, but I have a feeling the closer we get to that point, the more 'controversy' there will be. I mean, you know.. 'god wiped them for a reason' etc etc.

Plus there is the non-religious/'moral' side, if we breed them, how would the fit into the natural order of nature? It could seriously fuck up everything, if they were to be 'wild'.
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Meh..God didn't wipe them out. We did. With our caveman spears and flatulent Cenozoic global warming.
 
Foxy Fox 39 said:
Meh..God didn't wipe them out. We did. With our caveman spears and flatulent Cenozoic global warming.
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No shit sherlock (it will be said regardless), point was that how would they (if mass populated) integrate into the current natural order, aka foodchain? It'll be interesting, amazing, but worth anything? Will we be bringing back the species from extinction, or just a few guine pigs to put in 'Mammoth Park', i.e. a scientific experiment..










Mammoth Park..... nice ring to it.
 
McLovin said:
Bring back the pterodactyl, I wanna ride one of these Avatar style :P
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They'll devour you alive before they even let you touch their wings.

Good luck though!
 
Jay Sosa said:
Sounds like the plot to some horrible (but awesome at the same time) Scyfy channel movie.

Scientists? check
Russians? check
Large mammoths? check
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Indeed they have already made this movie and it even stars Summer Glau.
 
Willy105 said:
I assume this is the DNA source:

Lyuba[/QUOTE]
The story behind that body is pretty amazing. It is insane that we nearly lost this beautiful specimen because some people wanted to make a couple of bucks.
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Doesn't embryology muck things up a bit? How closely related are modern elephants and mammoths?

Bisnic said:
They'll devour you alive before they even let you touch their wings.
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Such confidence despite the lack of any significant historical record showing precisely how humans and pterodactyls interacted. There are few birds out there that show in interest in killing humans so I'm betting our two species lived side by side, perhaps they even helped us do battle against the mammoths.
 
CabbageRed said:
Doesn't embryology muck things up a bit? How closely related are modern elephants and mammoths?



Such confidence despite the lack of any significant historical record showing precisely how humans and pterodactyls interacted. There are few birds out there that show in interest in killing humans so I'm betting our two species lived side by side, perhaps they even helped us do battle against the mammoths.
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Are you really comparing a pterodactyl to a parrot or an owl? It's like comparing a Trex to an iguana.
 
esbern said:
dont they try this like every year and fail?
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Came here to say this, but to add...

...to think that scientists somewhere aren't trying stuff like this is crazy.

To presume they aren't trying crazy stuff that would scare the shit out of us if we knew: also crazy.

I always think of the most extreme thing I've heard in terms of cloning, double-maybe triple the impact I feel it would have in terms of fear, mass hysteria, and then I start to form a better picture of what is really going on.

In truth I don't think they've had a lot of luck with some of the more extreme stuff. I don't think we're smart enough yet but I fear we will be. I don't know of a sentient animal half-breed monster thing that's come out of any of that. God I hope not. Please dont prove me wrong. I guess that mouse with an ear on it is the only one that was mildly weird.
 
Ripclawe said:
ever since I found out about the feathers... not so much anymore.
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I think veloceraptors were about the size of a turkey too. I distinctly remember the movie made them much bigger than they really were.
 
Bisnic said:
It's like comparing a Trex to an iguana.
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Which I'm sure is, in terms of temperament, a perfectly valid comparison. Obviously, while the enormous amounts of rain and snow that have fallen over the last few thousand years has greatly increased Earth's mass and, in turn, its gravity, thereby making such large creatures unsustainable, there is no reason to assume that the Dinosaurs of yesteryear were any less amiable than the parrots and iguana's of today.
 
CabbageRed said:
Such confidence despite the lack of any significant historical record showing precisely how humans and pterodactyls interacted. There are few birds out there that show in interest in killing humans so I'm betting our two species lived side by side, perhaps they even helped us do battle against the mammoths.
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wat.
 
What a waste. Call me when they are making pet flying Dragons.

Stupid scientist need to get their priorities straight.
 
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