Bodies of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.
The mammoth is a close genetic cousin of the modern Asian elephant, and scientists think that the two may be capable of interbreeding.
The frozen mammoth sperm could be injected into elephant eggs, producing offspring that would be 50 per cent mammoth.
The suggestion that it may be possible to recreate an animal that is at least part-mammoth.
Back from the dead: Cloning Mammoths (Jacqui Hayes, Cosmos magazine, December 6th, 2006)
Not even ten years after the first mammal was cloned, scientists are racing to clone the first extinct species.
In 2002 Akira Iritani, from Kinki University in Japan, announced plans for his team to create 'Pleistocene Park' - a home for resurrected woolly mammoths, extinct for approximately 3,500 years. Later additions would include the woolly rhinoceros, which hasn't roamed the Earth for more than 10,000 years.
Iritani hoped, at first, to find frozen sperm from a mammoth. The sperm would be used to impregnate a modern-day elephant, creating a hybrid species. As more mammoths are born the elephant genes could eventually be bred out. Frozen sperm, though, would be an incredibly lucky find. As an insurance policy, any tissue samples found are stored, as the team firmly believes that scientists will find a way to piece together the fragmented DNA.
It's obviously a very ambitious idea. Success is not certain, but it is quite possible that these ideas could be made real in the not-too-distant future.
What do you think of using modern technology to bring back extinct species (including ones whose extinctions were due to humans in the first place)? On one hand it could be extremely fascinating, and shed light on things in the prehistoric world that would otherwise never be known. On the other hand, some argue that it is unethical for humans to "play god" in such a way.
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