The Woolly Mammoth Returns: Scientists to Clone Ancient Beast Within 5-Years

Five years from now you’ll be able to see a woolly mammoth in the flesh. Scientists, who recently discovered well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone, say that they’ll be able to clone the animal in less than five years.

According to Discovery News, the woolly mammoth cloning project will be a join effort between Russian scientist Semyon Gigoriev, acting director of the Sakha Republic’s mammoth museum, and Japan’s Kinki University. Gigoriev and his team are currently analyzing the marrow, which was extracted from a mammoth femur bone found in Serbia.

The report notes that global warming has been a major blessing since it has thawed ground in Eastern Russia that is usually covered by a permanent layer of perma-frost. Researchers have unearthed several well-preserved bones, including the thigh bone that could bring the woolly mammoth back to life.

Gigoriev’s team and Kinki University will replace the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with the ones they find in the mammoth’s bone marrow cells. This, which has been known by researchers for a long time, will create embryos with mammoth DNA. Discovery Reports that researchers have been looking for undamaged nuclei since the late 1990s, and now, they believe that they have the final ingredient needed to make a woolly mammoth.

The AFP reports that the woolly mammoth has been extinct for about 10,000 years.

So do you agree with this Jurassic Park experiment? Should the woolly mammoth be cloned?