Mammoth cloning

[ignite444]

I was planning to make a topic on this topic, but I recently watched this documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvAxILTNC50

Not sure how recent it is, but it seems pretty recent.

[tyrantqueen]

Looks like they're going ahead with it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11488404/Woolly-mammoth-could-roam-again-as-extinct-DNA-merged-with-elephant.html

[stargatedalek]

I really hate when people argue against campaigns like this with "the money should go to conserving animals we do have" or "money should go to starving kids", because honestly that argument applies to literally everything that someone spends money on.

[Yutyrannus]

Looks like they're going ahead with it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11488404/Woolly-mammoth-could-roam-again-as-extinct-DNA-merged-with-elephant.html

I'm glad that it seems this will finally happen. Normally I wouldn't support cloning an extinct species, however I fully support it with species that would still be around if it weren't for people. Other species I would like to see this happen with are the passenger pigeon, moas, quagga, and the tarpan.

[triceratops83]

Let's hope they don't combine its' DNA with a cuttlefish, snake and velociraptor. M rex!

[Tyto_Theropod]

Let's hope they don't combine its' DNA with a cuttlefish, snake and velociraptor. M rex!

LOLOLOL!

On the whole I'm in favour of bringing back extinct animals if their extinction was caused by humans. We've had way too much of an impact on the environment and it's time was did something about it. I believe that with the right people in charge it would be possible to resurrect the Woolly Mammoth and also preserve the other elephants. I also believe that some researchers think mammoths played a crucial role in the Siberian ecosystem and its absence has led to methane secretion which is contributing to global warming. If they do bring mammoths back, I'd like to see on on Wrangel Island once again.

However, I think it's almost frightening that we have the technology to do this. If used wrongly... well, Jurassic Park is only a few steps away from Resident Evil...

[Uroplatus]

Looks like they're going ahead with it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11488404/Woolly-mammoth-could-roam-again-as-extinct-DNA-merged-with-elephant.html

I'm glad that it seems this will finally happen. Normally I wouldn't support cloning an extinct species, however I fully support it with species that would still be around if it weren't for people. Other species I would like to see this happen with are the passenger pigeon, moas, quagga, and the tarpan.

I totaly agree with this, people caused them to go extinct so i don't see anything bad in trying to make things right where we messed up...
I would personaly like to see them bring back the Thylacine, and a Dodo would be a great site to see as well.

[DinoLord]

I really hate when people argue against campaigns like this with "the money should go to conserving animals we do have" or "money should go to starving kids", because honestly that argument applies to literally everything that someone spends money on.

Yeah, this argument isn't particularly relevant to the issue of de-extinction. This sort of genetic research is usually undertaken by universities and other research institutions, while a good amount of conservation work is done by various government and non-profit groups. It's not a zero-sum game.

[Yutyrannus]

Looks like they're going ahead with it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11488404/Woolly-mammoth-could-roam-again-as-extinct-DNA-merged-with-elephant.html

I'm glad that it seems this will finally happen. Normally I wouldn't support cloning an extinct species, however I fully support it with species that would still be around if it weren't for people. Other species I would like to see this happen with are the passenger pigeon, moas, quagga, and the tarpan.

I totaly agree with this, people caused them to go extinct so i don't see anything bad in trying to make things right where we messed up...
I would personaly like to see them bring back the Thylacine, and a Dodo would be a great site to see as well.

Thylacine and dodo would be great too. And I know it is unlikely, but I would love to have Haast's eagle come back.

[Paleogene Pals]

I think there is an active effort to bring back the quagga going on right now.

[Brontozaurus]

On one hand I'm all 'yay de-extinction' but on the other, I'm really not sure what the point of this is. The Ice Age is gone and the world's warming up, so we can't exactly release mammoths into the wild and expect them to do very well. The only future for them would be as curios in zoos. Plus, though we're bringing back their physical forms, there's a lot more to animals than just what's in their DNA. Elephants in particular have complex social systems, and no doubt mammoths had nearly the same. I guess we could have modern elephants raise cloned mammoths, but then what are we actually bringing back: real mammoths or organic ghosts?

Plus really, if there's any animal that we should revive, it's the Shasta ground sloth.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Had it actually been hard core established that humans were the main factor in mammoth extinction? Not up to date so I was wondering......I think, just from my own point of view, that if mammoths were cloned it might help ease the demand for ivory and help perhaps save a few wild animals in the process. Imagine a mammal with 18-20 foot long tusks that could be harvested without killing the specimen.

[DinoLord]

Personally I think it's very likely that human hunting was a factor in the extinction of mammoths and other Pleistocene mega-fauna. In their evolutionary history, human hunters most likely preferred larger, fattier animals compared to smaller leaner ones. Even more modern hunter gatherers did so - Inuits selectively ate the fatty parts of hunted animals while discarding the lean meats as dog food, and Aborigines would abandon hunted kangaroos that did not have enough fat. Fat is an essential nutrient for brain development and function and as a result was a very high priority for our hunter-gatherer ancestors; hunting large animals was the most efficient way to meet this need. If you look at Paleolithic archaeological sites, the bones present are primarily those of large megafauna (elephants, rhinos, mammoths, etc.) or in locales where such megafauna were not present at least of the largest animals present (ex. fallow deer).

[Simon]

There is no doubt that man played a great, probably pivotal role in the extinction of megafauna.  Plenty of mammoth, horse, bison massacre-sites from prehistory have been found where entire herds were driven over cliffs or massacred after being cornered in a ravine.  On all continents.

Regarding changing climate, the more populations naturally fluctuated downward to a constantly changing climate, the bigger factor such over-hunting would become, until finally populations dropped below survivable levels and the last critters died off...

....about cloning mammoths - it ain't never gonna happen.  The genetic material is too damaged after tens of thousands of years in permafrost.  But it makes for great news bytes, doesn't it?

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I would be interested in reading about them Simon, do you offhand know the names of any of the documented kill sites, that they have worked or are being excavated?Perhaps the type of animal etc....

[DinoLord]

There are some documented sites where Native Americans practiced such hunting with bison.

[Balaur]

Cloning has been successful before, in the case of the Pyrenean Ibex, though it died after ten minutes. I think that we will eventually clone a mammoth, but not for a very long time. Definitely not in our life time. I doubt that the DNA would be that damaged, especially if the last mammoths died out 4,500 years ago. That's not too long. But if we clone a mammoth, we would be injecting the DNA into the eggs of female elephants right? (Correct me if I'm wrong, my knowledge is a little rusty) So, we really wouldn't get a mammoth, we would get a hybrid, an elephant with a lot more hair. In this sense, that we would actually be making a hybrid, we will never be able to clone a mammoth, ever, but having a mammoth like elephant, sure, just not in our lifetime.

[stargatedalek]

People have already come incredibly close, so I see no reason to think this couldn't happen in the next decade.

[Newt]

But if we clone a mammoth, we would be injecting the DNA into the eggs of female elephants right? (Correct me if I'm wrong, my knowledge is a little rusty) So, we really wouldn't get a mammoth, we would get a hybrid, an elephant with a lot more hair. In this sense, that we would actually be making a hybrid, we will never be able to clone a mammoth, ever, but having a mammoth like elephant, sure, just not in our lifetime.

Well, it wouldn't exactly be a hybrid. The elephant egg's haploid nuclear DNA would be removed and replaced with mammoth diploid DNA. But the mitochondrial DNA would presumably be from the elephant, unless the researchers somehow also recovered mammoth mtDNA and replaced all the elephant mtDNA (which would make the whole job exponentially more complicated - the egg only has one nucleus, but it has a ton of mitochondria). Then they've got to take that elephant egg with its creamy mammoth center and gestate it. Most likely that means implanting it in a surrogate mother elephant - which will involve suppressing the elephant mother's natural immune response to this alien body. That, or developing some serious in vitro techniques.

It will certainly be a technical challenge. I'd love to see it happen. I'm not convinced it's possible, but even making the attempt should encourage some serious breakthroughs in cloning technology.

As far as re-wilding with mammoths - that seems more like a pipe dream. Releasing a few neomammoths in the tundra is not going to bring back the mammoth steppes.

One concern I have is that, if researchers are successful in resurrecting an extinct animal, the necessity of preserving extant animals will seem much less urgent. "Who cares if X goes extinct? We can always clone it later!"

[stargatedalek]

Re-wilding has thus far been very successful with re-introduced extant species, even without the mammoths. I think it has potential to work, but it will probably be an ecosystem forever dependent on people.