Woolly mammoth remains may contain living cells

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/sep/11/wooly-mammoth-remains-living-cells


Frozen fragments of a woolly mammoth have been found by an international expedition of scientists in Siberia, Russia. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis


A Russian university says scientists have discovered frozen woolly mammoth fragments that may contain living cells deep in Siberia, bringing closer the possibility of cloning the extinct animal.

The North-Eastern Federal University said in a statement on Tuesday that an international team had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow at a depth of 328ft (100m) during a summer expedition.

Expedition chief Semyon Grigoryev said a group of Korean scientists with the team had set a goal of finding living cells in the hope of cloning a mammoth. Scientists have previously found bodies and fragments, but not living cells.

Grigoryev told online newspaper Vzglyad it would take months of lab research to determine whether they have indeed found the cells.

[longship]

1. Clone it and impregnate an elephant.

Probably not possible, let alone practical. But it is the only possible way forward to actually have a live wooly mammoth today.

That would be cool.

And then there's that guy in Canada who wants to turn on genes in a chicken to bring back long suppressed physical traits of the dinosauria.

That would also be cool.

No Jurassic Park, but zoos might get a lot more interesting.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. What is the size difference between a mammoth and elephant? Can a baby be delivered all right?

[longship]

5. Well, look at the thing.

It's an elephant. Maybe with more fur, but a very close cousin. They've even sequenced the thing's DNA.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Well, Great Danes and Chihuahuas are both dogs, but I think they're not a match made in heaven. LOL

[Odin2005]

9. Mammoths are essentially large hairy Asian Elephants.

An Asian Elephant should carry one fine, I would think.

[Javaman]

3. Woolly Mammoth to Be Cloned

http://news.discovery.com/animals/woolly-mammoth-cloned-111205.html

Within five years, a woolly mammoth will likely be cloned, according to scientists who have just recovered well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone. Japan's Kyodo News first reported the find. You can see photos of the thigh bone at this Kyodo page.

Russian scientist Semyon Grigoriev, acting director of the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum, and colleagues are now analyzing the marrow, which they extracted from the mammoth's femur, found in Siberian permafrost soil.

Grigoriev and his team, along with colleagues from Japan's Kinki University, have announced that they will launch a joint research project next year aimed at re-creating the enormous mammal, which went extinct around 10,000 years ago.

Mammoths used to be a common sight on the landscape of North America and Eurasia. One of my favorite papers of recent months concerned the earliest-known depiction of an animal from the Americas. It was a mammoth engraved on a mammoth bone. Many of our distant ancestors probably had regular face-to-face encounters with the elephant-like giants.

more at link...

[chknltl]

4. Don't know about mammoths but they definitely had encounters with Mastodons.

At the Mannis Mastodon site, a Mastodon with a bone arrowhead embedded in it's own thigh bone was found. The Mastodon was dated at over 13,000 years bp (before present). Placing man in the Pacific Northwest at about 4000 years earlier than previously thought.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manis_Mastodon_Site#section_1

[Sheepshank]

13. ...and yet, there are STILL people pressing the 6000 year old earth memes n/t

[tclambert]

6. You want me to impregnate an elephant?

I am nowhere near drunk enough for that.

[tomm2thumbs]

8. hehehe - that's helawwwrious!

(have another drink... I've gotta see this)

[Odin2005]

10. Time to bring back a creature we killed off 10,000 years ago.

Reversing an error.

[efhmc]

11. This is amazing. DNA links will be fascinating.

[Marrah_G]

12. ~cough~

Has not one of these people seen Jurassic Park???????