Cloning the Wolly Mammoth

[bhsup]

Considering that we managed to wipe them out completely the first time using only spears, I think our current weapons are more than enough to deal with them.

Our forebears didn't have to deal with PETA, The Humane Society, etc.

 

[Abaddon]

...have I missed something? Where are we getting Mammoth sperm from?

Your grasp of cloning possibly.

Once we have an egg, we can cause it to self divide, creating a female.

 

[Abaddon]

So, a couple of years ago in scientific American, a couple of scientists wanted to clone a Mammoth by impregnating a female Asian elephant. They want to inject the Mammoth Embryo into an Elephant egg to get a pure Mammoth in one shot instead of the slow way of just fertilizing a Egg with Mammoth sperm and slowing producing a Mammoth over many generations.

Do you guys think this will ever work?

On a greater question, why do we want to bring back this thing anyways?
Didn't it become extinct for a reason, would it just die again?

Edit: Crap, I spelled Woolly wrong in the title.

Wanted to a few years ago? Then how come we havn't heard anything?



The reason is the same we couldnt resssurect the Dodo.

Once an animal dies, its DNA breaks down very quickly. Sure the DNA is still there, but putting it back together?

It would be akin to taking appart a spaceship and asking a 5 year old kid to put it back together

 

[StarWorms]

It could work.

The DNA is still there because they have been kept frozen, which makes it last a lot longer. Unless there are enough frozen Mammoths to create a population big enough to be able to sustain itself, then it would be a disaster.

The only reason the scientists want to resurrect the mammoth is for a bit of fun, and for a sense of achievement.

Other animals have been cloned and implanted into a similar species, such as the banteng: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banteng#Cloning

The dodo is a very recent extinction. If we could find plenty of fossils (not very likely though as they were all hunted and eaten) then we could extract DNA from the bones, as it will not have degraded.

Mammoths will not be cloned, at least in our lifetimes, not because it is too difficult, but because of those who say it is unethical.

 

[Abaddon]

Dodos have not been extinct long enough for fossils (and you can't get DNA from a rock), but we even have stuffed examples.

Even from a actual specimen, once a creature has died it is increasingly hard to extract its dna, every second counts. Enzymes within the cell continue to break it down after the cell has died as they are mere chemical reactions. Bond are broke, links lost.

I am sorry, but it is virtually impossible to clone the woolly Mammoth, we would never get intact DNA

 

[bhsup]

Can't we just stick some frog DNA in there to make up for the missing bits?

 

[Abaddon]

A Mammoth/frog hybrid might suffer with an identity crisis, can we morally justify that?

 

[Masquerouge]

A Mammoth/frog hybrid might suffer with an identity crisis, can we morally justify that?

A giant frog with tusks gets an automatic pass at the moral gate.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

On a greater question, why do we want to bring back this thing anyways?
Didn't it become extinct for a reason, would it just die again?

Yeah, I don't see what benefit humanity can derive from that.

 

[StarWorms]

Dodos have not been extinct long enough for fossils (and you can't get DNA from a rock), but we even have stuffed examples.

Even from a actual specimen, once a creature has died it is increasingly hard to extract its dna, every second counts. Enzymes within the cell continue to break it down after the cell has died as they are mere chemical reactions. Bond are broke, links lost.

I am sorry, but it is virtually impossible to clone the woolly Mammoth, we would never get intact DNA

Dodos have been extinct long enough for fossils. A fossil is any preserved dead organism. Bones will still be in the ground.

It is far from virtually impossible. You don't need the DNA to be intact, it just needs to all be there. Secondly, we do have many samples and have been able to read a lot of the genome. Thirdly, any gaps can be guessed at by inserting elephant DNA.

 

[Slobadog]

Anything that might possibly lead to a rampage through Los Angeles is fine by me.

 

[Abaddon]

Dodos have been extinct long enough for fossils. A fossil is any preserved dead organism. Bones will still be in the ground.

It is far from virtually impossible. You don't need the DNA to be intact, it just needs to all be there. Secondly, we do have many samples and have been able to read a lot of the genome. Thirdly, any gaps can be guessed at by inserting elephant DNA.

Ok, my lack of definition.. i'd consider it a corpse but n/m

Needs to be all there? Do you realise how stupid that idea is? You realise Genes work by reading the code, IN THE CORRECT ORDER?


How can we jus jumble a load of WM DNA and create a viable organism?

You couldnt do that an produce a viable ameba let alone a WM.

Oh, and inserting elephant DNA into a Dodo will do nothing but leave us with a very surprised looking Dodo

 

[illram]

What's a Wolly Mammoth?

 

[Masquerouge]

What's a Wolly Mammoth?

Hint: look at the pic at the beginning of this very thread.

 

[Abaddon]

What's a Wolly Mammoth?

Wiki/Google/Yahoo/Lycos is your friend....

 

[TheLastOne36]

Hint: look at the pic at the beginning of this very thread.

thats a woolly mammoth not a wolly mammoth.

 

[Masquerouge]

And by the way Cloning is like the worst name ever to give to a Woolly Mammoth.

 

[TheLastOne36]

And by the way Cloning is like the worst name ever to give to a Woolly Mammoth.

"Cloning the Woolly Mammoth"

 

[Abaddon]

Your humour is positivly neolithic

 

[Zardnaar]

Attack of the Clones with Wooly Mammoth's brilliant. Gotta be better than the movie anyway.