Cloning the Wooly Mammoth

Do you think scientists should attempt to clone the wooly mammoth?

  • Yes

    Votes: 44 80.0%
  • No

    Votes: 11 20.0%

  • Total voters
    55
Depends.

First, is it even actually possible with our current technology? Even if we are able to extract the DNA from a frozen mammoth, we'd still need an empty egg cell AND a functioning uterus from a living animal. We could use elephants (closing living relative species) but who knows whether it will really work or not?

Next, there is the question of survivability. What was their original habitat like? Where can they survive today? What will they eat? Etc. etc.

And lastly (and most importantly), will there be any economic benefits from doing such a thing? :D
 
Of course, the Panda is only with us because of Zoo's its virtually a living fossil itself, being so rubbish at survival.

A carnivore that has evolve to eat plants, the male has very little sex drive what so ever, and the female is only in heat 2or3 days a year!
 
And it's all man's fault. The panda's original habitat (bamboo forests) perhaps ranged over all China south of the Yangtze, but today they are confined to a few National Reserves in Yunnan that still have the right conditions (for them). The rest of southern China is now farmland.

So should we just go on and let them go extinct? Or at least try to atone for past sins?
 
skadistic said:
It would be cool if you get the cloneing down pat now so when the "big freeze" comes and kills of the ephalumps and wuzzles we can have something to terrify with cloned lab mice with human ears growing out thier backs.
We must for this reason alone, mice deserve to have something to scare!
Btw, what's a wuzzle?

I think we should, just to see if we can clone something that big, plus if the earth decides to go cold they may actually be useful.
 
Dann said:
First, is it even actually possible with our current technology? Even if we are able to extract the DNA from a frozen mammoth, we'd still need an empty egg cell AND a functioning uterus from a living animal. We could use elephants (closing living relative species) but who knows whether it will really work or not?
Saw a TV program on this a while back, they planned to try and impregnate a female elephant of a specific type that they think could produce fertile offspring - so the offspring would be 1/2 mammoth 1/2 elephant. They would then impregnate the offspring with more of that frozen sperm so the offspring of the offspring would be 3/4 mammoth. They continue this process till they have pushed out most of the elephant genes and were left with something that's pretty much a pure mammoth. The whole thing sounds a bit iffy however, I'm not sure fertile offspring could be produced by a mammoth-elephant combo, and obviously if you could it would take a long time to go through the process.
 
I sincerely hope they try and succeed. I've seen the 'raising the mammoth" shows aswell. They were more hopeful at making a elephant-mammoth hybrid than a clone. Still it will help advance the technology if anything.

I am not sure, I think there is a few fragments of the dodo bird in museums. I wonder if one day they will be able to bring that species back from the dead aswell. It's the least our destructive species can do for the world. Perhaps one day extinction will be a thing of the past.
 
Why not, it could be fun, and it'd probably die soon after anyways because of disease that weren't around when they lived.

If they manage to stay alive they could live in some national park in Siberia or Canada. Might do something for tourism.
 
I think I still have a feq ethical qualms about it...can't we let these poor beasts rest in peace?
 
I don't know how much scientific benefit there would be (relative to the effort), however the PR might be pretty good - it would certainly boost interest in science.

Is there any value to learning the biology of a 1/2 mammoth raised in a elephant's womb? Probably not. In fact, it would just divert good researchers away from something useful. But I'm sure they'd enjoy doing it.
 
i say yes. there are far worse things scientists could be doing with technology like coming up with more efficient ways to kill people in a war.

waste of time? probably but not for those in this particular field, it can give them a huge insight into how they lived back then and help them undertstand that time better giving us a better understanding of our planet.

unless we'd all be happy dragging our knuckles on the ground as we walked grunting "must buy new ipod! must consume all natural resources!"
 
mmmmmmmm, mammoth

/homer
 
Some Cro Magnon relied on following the mamoth heards for their survival or at least it is presumed they did from the vast numbers of bones they found near there settlements. The carved seemingly religous totems from their horns add another mystical dimension to the beast.

I'd say hell yeah it probably tasted great with onions, but for me would have to be the fillet prepared in garlic and a red wine sauce. But hey that's just me :)
 
goldeagle said:
I think they need to watch Jurassic Park first :rolleyes:


yeah those wooly mammoths are violent carnivores...so dangerous!:rolleyes:

i also think basing your answer on a movie is rather...lame.
 
ThePrankMonkey said:
yeah those wooly mammoths are violent carnivores...so dangerous!:rolleyes:
True, they're not, but what happens when they want to breed Saber-tooth tigers? Then, they'll create a park on an island for the tigers...but the tigers will end up smashing down the fences and eating their creators. :crazyeye:
 
goldeagle said:
True, they're not, but what happens when they want to breed Saber-tooth tigers? Then, they'll create a park on an island for the tigers...but the tigers will end up smashing down the fences and eating their creators. :crazyeye:


i dont know what planet or solar system you're from but they do house tigers at the zoo and i dont see them tearing down fences and eating zoo visitors at all. in fact most cases of people being attacked in a zoo relates to visitors getting too close to the animals.

unless the saber tooth tiger was like 4 stories tall i dont see how it would be any harder to house one of those than another oth4er big cat in a zoo presently.
 
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