Bringing mammoths back to life

The last mammoths walked around about 5.765 years ago. On some small islands in the Bering sea  that was. Now, they're really extinct. It's a pity because since the Ice Age movies mammoths became so popular... Who wouldn't like to see one in real? Well, that is actually possible. Not alive, but frozen since death, 10.000 or more years ago.

Yuka is about 10.000 years old and found in the Siberian permafrost.

Since the last ice age parts of the Siberian soil are still permanently frozen. This is called permafrost. Sometimes the body of a mammoth is found in this frozen soil. Because of the cold, the body is dried and mummified. But skin and fur are still in very good condition.

But what about cloning mammoths back to life. Russians and South Koreans are planing to actually do this. But how does it work? What can't be done with dinosaurs, can work with mammoths. Their frozen bodies might still contain some complete DNA molecules, which contains their genetic information. Nevertheless, Jurassic-Park-lovers, I have to disappoint you. It is very unlikely to find complete DNA molecules. You need in fact living tissue for this, or perfect freezing conditions like laboratory environments. As you can see on the movie above, the body looks really good. But at the molecular level it's very different. And I must say, this Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk is not famous for cloning animals, he's actually famous for faking cloning results some years ago...

Illustration by Mauricio Anton.

It will take some years or decades before we will see some real live mammoths. But, hey, where would we bring those huge animals? Their original habitat and climate conditions don't exist anymore... Maybe it's more useful to clone back some animals which are extinct because of us like the Yangtze-dolphin or the famous Dodo.

More information:
- Everything abour mammoths: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mammoth
- The last news on cloning mammoths is not very positive: BBC.co.uk/news/world-europe-19580558
- Brazilian plans to clone eight animals which are not yet completely extinct: NewScientist.com/...clone-endangered-animals.html Maybe it is a lot more realistic...

De Nederlandse versie van deze blogbijdrage: Mammoeten tot leven wekken