Animal Cloning 

      Imagine a time where your favorite Ice Age characters could once again roam earth.  A time where wholly mammoths, Tasmanian tigers, and perhaps Dodo birds could become…well, resurrected.  With the power of cloning and other scientific technologies, it may soon be possible.  The idea is called de-extinction and the goal is to bring extinct species back to life. Although there has been much controversy and many critics, scientists are now convinced that they are now coming close to bring their first species back-the majestic wholly mammoth.

 

                Mammoths are thought to have become extinct around 1700 BC.  Scientist now hypothesize that they were “hunted to extinction” [8.3], and were not affected by climate change as previously thought. Mammoths lived across North America and Europe, eating shrubs, nuts, and berries.  They are believed to share many of the same behavioral characteristics with modern day elephants. [8.2] Mammoths were, in many cases, about the same size of today’s elephants; although some individuals grew much taller.

 

                Many mammoth carcasses have been found across northern Russia, well preserved by the cold temperatures of the Arctic climate. Bones, teeth, and tissue have been found fully intact, with precious DNA inside.  These DNA strands can be used to help crack the genome of the wholly mammoth.  Unfortunately, when exposed to modern day bacteria, the DNA is either destroyed or rapidly broken up into smaller strands.  Thankfully, for scientists, the genome seems to be very similar to that of an Asian elephant.  This means that the genes that have not been able to be recovered can be improvised with elephant DNA [8.1].

 

                The first step for cloning a mammoth would be to alter an elephant’s genome, so that it matches that of a mammoth.  The DNA would then be injected into an egg cell, then implanted into a sergeant mother [8.1]. Although the cloned mammoth’s genome would not be identical to the woolly mammoths who roamed during the ice age, it would likely look very much like one.  As far as scientists are concerned, this so called elephant- mammoth hybrid is changing the way that cloning is viewed.  In another couple years, extinction could be a thing of the past.