Cloned mammoth a step closer thanks to global warming
THE FIRST cloned mammoth is a step closer to reality, according to scientists, who have found bone marrow cells in a well-preserved thigh bone recovered from the Siberian permafrost in August.
The giant mammals became extinct in Siberia around 10,000 years ago during a period of global warming that ended the last ice age. Ironically, it is global warming that has made it more likely that scientists will be successful in their attempts to bring the mammoth back from extinction.
AFP reports that more, better preserved, mammoth carcasses are being found in Siberia because soil that was previously frozen solid has now thawed.
Scientists from the Sakha Republic mammoth museum in Russia and Japan’s Kinki University say the well-preserved femur increases the chance of cloning the animal and to that end they intend to begin a joint research project next year.
They will put nuclei from the bone marrow cells into egg cells from a living elephant - a close relative of the mammoth - in a bid to create a viable embryo containing the ancient DNA.
The mammoth embryo would then be implanted into a female elephant.