Scientists May Be Able to Clone Mammoth

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Grand Master

Hum

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YAKUTSK, Russia ? Japanese and Russian scientists might be able to clone a mammoth after confirming the presence of well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thighbone found in Siberian permafrost, Kyodo News reported.

The scientists from the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum and Kinki University's graduate school will begin research next year to regenerate the huge mammal, which became extinct about 10,000 years ago.

They will transplant nuclei from the bone marrow cells into elephant egg cells whose nuclei were removed through a type of cloning. The process can create an embryo that can be planted into an elephant womb for birth.

For scientists involved in the research since the late 1990s, finding nuclei with undamaged mammoth genes has been a challenge, AFP reported.

But the discovery in August of the well-preserved thighbone in Siberia increased the chances of a successful cloning.

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Grand Master

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why do we want to bring back mammoths? there's a reason they're not here anymore. even if we do, will they be happy in this world? living in a prison (aka zoo)?

Yes, that reason being our ancestors killed them all.

Grand Master

Teebor

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why do we want to bring back mammoths? there's a reason they're not here anymore. even if we do, will they be happy in this world? living in a prison (aka zoo)?

I expect it would be in a massive reserve and looked after very well.

According to the BBC documentary a few years back a mammoth would most likely happily get along with modern elephants anyway :D

Grand Master

M_Lyons10

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Wow, really really looking forward to it. Imagine going to a zoo, and seeing extinct animals!

And do these scientists take request? Some dinosaur would be a good idea too. :p

Yeah, I remember Jurassic Park started with such a "good idea"... :p

Honestly, this is pretty cool. Haven't they been talking about mammoths for ages though? I could have swore I heard this a long while ago... I remember reading in National Geographic last year that Europe was trying to clone some sort of giant cow that was extinct... I can't remember what it was called. It only at a particular type of tree I remember. Some sort of neucense tree...

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HardyRexion

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A Mammophant :D

Or an Elemoth :rofl:

According to the BBC documentary a few years back a mammoth would most likely happily get along with modern elephants anyway :D

Don't they live in slightly cooler climates than Effalumps?

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Grand Master

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why do we want to bring back mammoths? there's a reason they're not here anymore. even if we do, will they be happy in this world? living in a prison (aka zoo)?

This.. I don't see a reason for it either tbh... Other than the novelty of it, but that's not really a good reason!

And on second thought, it may be an even worse idea. They've been extinct for ages, who knows if they could even survive in the environment we've got now? Unlike the species that are around now, they didn't have a chance to adapt to the little things that have happened along the way. There's stuff in the water that didn't exist back then, the air has more/different pollution, whatever they're eating will be very different to what they had before. I highly doubt they would thrive.

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Darrian

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Sure they did. They were talking about how they were going to do it, and then they just never did. Probably the DNA sample they had wasn't viable or they just realized it might not be a great idea and the money could be spent better elsewhere.

Grand Master

DocM

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Thanks for saving me the trouble :)

@Zain Adeel

As shown in this, the rate of genomic research advances is now so fast it would be like leaping directly from the original Macintosh to an iPad 2 in about 2 years - slightly longer than the period of time Moore's Law would predict for a computing product cycle. This has profound implications, not only for medicine but for food production and international relations.

Grand Master

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It's good to see the scientists of these two countries coming together to work on a joint project.

Yes, that reason being our ancestors killed them all.

It's only a hypothesis.

They were talking about cloning mammoths when I was in middle school in the 80s. I'm not sure this is really news?

'Cause it's just been announced now, not 30 years ago.

Grand Master

Memphis

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Thanks for saving me the trouble :)

@Zain Adeel

As shown in this, the rate of genomic research advances is now so fast it would be like leaping directly from the original Macintosh to an iPad 2 in about 2 years - slightly longer than the period of time Moore's Law would predict for a computing product cycle. This has profound implications, not only for medicine but for food production and international relations.

This big news here isn't the advance in technology, but intact bone marrow, without it all cloning regardless of technology probably wouldn't of happened.

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