Could the Woolly Mammoth be brought back from extinction?

[MIB41]

With this find, it could be possible. Amazing...

Russian Reindeer Herder Discovers Baby Mammoth in Arctic | NBC New York

[wolfie]

Think how many people you could feed with a herd of wooly mammoths.

I bet it tastes like chicken.

[Mikey]

A wooly mammoth skeleton was found 1/2 mile away from my house (were I grew up) in a swamp.

They ended up assembled and on display at the state museum

Wish it was me who found it

[toys2cool]

wow! that's amazing!! think of how many more things are frozen down there

[Random Axe]

wow! that's amazing!! think of how many more things are frozen down there

Encino Man

Captain America

The Thing

Think of the possibilities...

[MIB41]

Encino Man

Captain America

The Thing

Think of the possibilities...

Great answer!

[jimsmegos]

Interesting thought but let's not forget the events of Jurassic Park... Extinction is a natural process of the planet. I'd be concerned of reintroducing something that nature said it was done with a long time ago.

[z3zep]

Yeah although it sounds cool, we barley have enough habitat for our existing animals.

[torgospizza]

It'll happen, no question. In fact, I expect them to have a neanderthal cloned within 30 years. I'm pretty sure the sequencing's done, and they look nothing like we've assumed for so long--red hair, green eyes, f.ex.

[megocrazy]

For some reason I think this has already been discussed in the scientific community. I watched a show on Discovery where they found a couple of alaskan nomads using tusks as runners on their sled and they were Mammoth tusks. they brought the scientists to the site and sure enough there was a frozen one under the ice. The head had already deteriorated but it was kinda funny. The scientists were in the city getting ready for an expedition and here comes two basically homeless guys with a sled with giant tusks as runners. They showed pics of the hair coming through the ice so there had to be enough to get DNA from. I'm sure crossing it with elephant DNA would probably fill in the blanks. I say do it.

[Brazoo]

Every once in a while I come across a blurb about a research team getting excited about bringing a Wolly Mammoth back. I believe it would have to be only part Mammoth - because they'd still need to use an elephant for the embryo and womb.

Interesting thought but let's not forget the events of Jurassic Park... Extinction is a natural process of the planet. I'd be concerned of reintroducing something that nature said it was done with a long time ago.

I think the point in Jurassic Park was that the Dinosaurs evolved over a much longer period with much more extreme evolutionary pressures then anything humans ever experienced during our evolutionary development.

It's a little different here - because humans and Woolly Mamoths did co-exist. In fact it's very likely that we contributed to it's extinction - as far as I know.

It's true though - from an ecosystem standpoint introducing a new species can really mess things up. It should be pretty easy to keep track of Woolly Mammoths though, no? It's not like some kind of extinct field mouse that might escape and totally mess up the ecosystem.

I honestly love thinking about this stuff. How friggen cool would it be to see a real life Woolly Mammoth?

[Brazoo]

Also - they could select to only reproduce female instead of male mammoths if they wanted to really control the breeding.

As I recall, that's exactly what they did that in Jurassic Park, but things went wrong because one of the animals they used to fill in missing DNA from was an amphibian that happened to be able to change it's sex. Stupid Jurassic Park scientists!

[Hector]

It's a little different here - because humans and Woolly Mamoths did co-exist. In fact it's very likely that we contributed to it's extinction - as far as I know.

I don't think early humans played that big of a part on the extinction of the mammoth.

It was extremely difficult to hunt a healthy adult mammoth for example.

I'd say most of the time...the gathering hunters would've targeted an injured one...that makes more sense.

Spearing a mammoth was downright dangerous to early man. Plus when they managed a mammoth kill...the carcass would have fed the clan for a long time. So repeated hunts were not carried out often.

If elephants thrived in Africa...there was a reason for it...huge and powerful...against humans with primitive weapons.

I'm a firm believer that the main cause of the mass extinction of many large mammals in North America...and all about the same time period...was the warming trend that occurred at that time...and the glacial retreat of a melting ice age. As the ice sheets retreated there would have been changing vegetation patterns. Rising sea levels were another factor. Forests replaced open woodlands and grasslands across the continent (good-bye mammoth food). A mass disease of some kind is another possibility.

And while I think humans were really not that big of a factor in contributing to their extinction...they surely played a part in some way as well.

Just my humble opinion of course...

[Dark Shadow]

Interesting, I've always heard that it was believed they were wiped out by the advance of the most recent ice age.

But if Hector's theory about a warming trend is correct, I'd be willing to bet that warming trend was brought on by all those damned SUV's and incandescent light bulbs our ancestors were abusing.


I wouldn't be surprised to see a version of the Mammoth in our lifetime...I would be in awe, but not surprised....MMMMmmmmmm, Mammoth Burgers!

[Boshek]

I hope it happens in my lifetime. It may help people realize that our planet is more fragile than they realize. However, animals come and go and extinction is part of Earth; there is no stopping it.