Story 2014-11-19 2V4F Scientists Determined to Clone Woolly Mammoths

Scientists Determined to Clone Woolly Mammoths

by
in science on (#2V4F)
story imageGet ready for Pleistocene Park

South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation (which has been cloning dogs for years) is partnering with Russian researchers to clone a woolly mammoth, if only they can find suitable cells.

Russian and South Korean scientists who recovered a well-preserved frozen woolly mammoth from Siberia's permafrost last year raised hopes that researchers could find an intact cell nucleus that contained the full set of DNA instructions for making a mammoth. If that could be done, the nucleus could be inserted into an elephant egg, sparked into cell division, and then implanted into a surrogate mother elephant. The result? A clone that should be virtually identical to the long-dead mammoth.

Carbon dating of the mammoth's flesh determined that she lived about 40,000 years ago. (Earlier estimates suggested the remains were just 10,000 years old.) Growth rings in the tusk suggested she was in her late 50s when she died.
Reply 8 comments

All well and good (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-11-20 08:56 (#2V4K)

Will it glow in the dark?

Always wondered (Score: 1)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2014-11-20 14:48 (#2V4P)

If they clone one, and then clone another bunch from that one, and so on, would that lead to the same kind of ill effects as inbreeding?

Re: Always wondered (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org on 2014-11-20 17:53 (#2V4R)

Yes, of course. But does it matter? You will never have huge mammoth herds. At best a few zoos get one. If the offspring shows defects, it just isn't used for breeding.

Population bottlenecks happen and happened naturally:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck
Species still survived. Some without human intervention.

Re: Always wondered (Score: 1)

by richardnixon@pipedot.org on 2014-11-21 15:35 (#2V51)

My mind immediately wondered what they would taste like...

Re: Always wondered (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org on 2014-11-21 16:03 (#2V53)

Erm... I must lie to say that this didn't cross my mind. But only for a second. ;-)

Re: Always wondered (Score: 1)

by richardnixon@pipedot.org on 2014-11-24 14:45 (#2V7T)

Is it "bad" that whenever I hear about this artificial meat that's being grown in labs, I hope "people-flavored" is one of the meats that makes it to market?

Re: Always wondered (Score: 1)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org on 2014-11-24 15:03 (#2V7Z)

Bad? Depends on whom you ask.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/8972949/Dutch-cannibal-TV-presenters-insist-they-did-eat-each-others-flesh.html
http://www.odditycentral.com/funny/dutch-television-hosts-to-eat-each-others-flesh-on-live-tv.html

Some just call it 'crazy'. Above reality....
... below fiction:
The idea of lab grown human flesh for consumption isn't new:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_%28film%29

I must say, I am curious, but definitely not that curious. Pass.

Why not? (Score: 1)

by venkman@pipedot.org on 2014-11-21 14:33 (#2V50)

Go for it! And when I'm a rockstar, I'll buy one--it would be very metal. Unfortunately for the time being, cloned mammoths and my rockstar dreams are equally unlikely.