The Russians have recovered liquid mammoth blood While on expedition
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/31/187581614/report-of-liquid-woolly-mammoth-blood-prompts-clone-talk
X Prize Foundation offers millions to first team to clone any extinct species.
http://www.xprize.org/prize/jurassic-park-xprize
If I told you that there is little in this life that I want to see more than a T-Rex running at full speed down the street in front of my house, while chasing a police car thats driving backwards. Believe it! Cause there is little that I want to see more.
Err two T-Rex's chasing said car with another two doing a pincer movement from the rear ...one can only dream.
I read that a few days ago too and I have to say that I don't know if I really want scientists playing god recreating a species that doesn't exist anymore. Will there be areas on this earth where mammoths can live or will they be part of some kind of a Jurassic Park?
The other part of me would love to see a living mammoth right in front of me (behind a fence! ;)).
I really don't know...
Sadly the chances of finding intact dino DNA in the same way are virtually zero. Mammoths lived 10,000 years ago or something, but the last dinosaur died 10s of millions of years ago. :(
I already find elephants endearing, so I'm betting a mammoth would be even more so. I'm a *little* uncomfortable just on principle with the large-scale genetic tinkering involved, but... bring it on! :P
- Oshyan
I am not sure I have heard a solid reason for why the mammoths died out. If we can figure that, we should be able to make a good guess at where we can let them live and roam.
Russia still has vast amounts of room. Canada could probably let a few in?
Seems like we could make room.
I'm sure I agree with you guys about the ethical questions. Cloning body parts with stolen DNA for rich people, stuff like that.
Still, I would love to see one of these things. I want to know if the fur is really soft or harsh.
Quote from: Oshyan on June 12, 2013, 06:49:34 PM
Sadly the chances of finding intact dino DNA in the same way are virtually zero. Mammoths lived 10,000 years ago or something, but the last dinosaur died 10s of millions of years ago. :(
I already find elephants endearing, so I'm betting a mammoth would be even more so. I'm a *little* uncomfortable just on principle with the large-scale genetic tinkering involved, but... bring it on! :P
- Oshyan
well there goes my Mammoth Petting Zoo idea... ;D
Mankind is doing crazy stuff with the environment anywhere anyway, and the earth won't exist anymore in a zillion years, so why not clone some docile mammoths and let them indeed roam some large expanses. There will be room on Antarctica when the ice has melted ::)
But seriously, I'm in doubt as well.
Quote from: TheBadger on June 12, 2013, 08:50:43 PM
I want to know if the fur is really soft or harsh.
as long as you don´t have to test this out on the foot soles of these giants ;-) Or under the foot soles ;-)
Quote from: Oshyan on June 12, 2013, 06:49:34 PM
Mammoths lived 10,000 years ago or something...
Wikipedia says that the last mammoths died only 4000 to 4500 years ago. So maybe there were still a few mammoths on earth when the pyramids of Giza were built. Not in egypt but in Siberia probably.
Yes you have that picture of primitive humans and mammoths but there were likely advanced civilizations around while the beasts still roamed the northern hemisphere.
The issue with cloning is that you have a very small pool to draw from. Elephants are in the same family, so maybe it is in the realm of possibilities after all.