It is not as easy as clonning Dolly. Not only the DNA is damaged (even though that might be partially figured out thanks to Pääbo's sequencing of the Neardenthal genome from bones), but the whole organism is new and therefore the development of the fetus, even if they make it that far, will still be very difficult. They'll have to find the right medium/conditions for it to grow in-vitro and then in a borrowed mother (which I assume it's going to be the closest possible alive elephant, which might still be like putting a human fetus inside a monkey..)

Pretty cool if they make it tho, since then you might be able to start breeding them naturally.

Next stop: Jurassic Park!!

ZaplinG

United States3818 Posts

March 15 2012 17:41 GMT

#84

A baby woolly mammoth found in the Siberian permafrost being studied by scientists in Chicago

[image loading]

South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk (L) shakes hands with Russia's Vasily Vasiliev (R)

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Woolly mammoth tusks dug up from Siberian permafrost

Rassy

Netherlands2308 Posts

March 15 2012 17:42 GMT

#85

Its no T-rex yet but its a start

Hoping they succeed and still hoping to be able to visit a real jurassic park in my lifetime.

InseKtSC2

United States173 Posts

March 15 2012 18:09 GMT

#86

gonna be pretty cool til it destroys everything in its path

Sandtrout

243 Posts

March 15 2012 18:17 GMT

#87

On March 16 2012 03:09 InseKtSC2 wrote:
gonna be pretty cool til it destroys everything in its path

As long as the scientists would be intelligent enough to put it in an elephant cage and not in a petting zoo, I doubt that could happen.
Although, thinking about it... somebody would probably want to put it in a petting zoo because it's so fluffy ^.^

NEOtheONE

United States2233 Posts

March 15 2012 18:34 GMT

#88

On March 15 2012 22:20 Zandar wrote:

Show nested quote +

Totally agree.

Btw if it doesn't work with the mammoth corpse from permafrost I still have a mosquito in amber lying around somewhere.

Yes, this ftw. Gotta love Jurassic Park references.

Blasterion

China10272 Posts

March 15 2012 18:36 GMT

#89

Didn't they use frog DNA to clone Dinos in Jurassic Park? Elephant gene in mammoth only makes sense hahaha

NIIINO

Slovakia1320 Posts

March 15 2012 18:40 GMT

#90

if you dont have Mammoths DNA and still can clone it does it mean that we can make Ultras too ?

Rice

United States1332 Posts

March 15 2012 18:47 GMT

#91

they should clone high iq historical figures like newton einstein etc and see if they do great things in current times imo.

Redox

Germany24794 Posts

March 15 2012 18:51 GMT

#92

On March 16 2012 03:36 Blasterion wrote:
Didn't they use frog DNA to clone Dinos in Jurassic Park? Elephant gene in mammoth only makes sense hahaha

It is cloning, not mating.
There will be no mix with elephant DNA. It would have DNA complelely identical to the cloned mammoth.
Well except for the mitochondrial DNA which would come from the elephant egg cell.

cmen15

United States1519 Posts

March 15 2012 19:02 GMT

#93

On March 15 2012 22:14 Plexa wrote:
Screw ethics, I want to see mammoths in my lifetime

This be sooo badass lol!!

CyDe

United States1010 Posts

March 15 2012 19:04 GMT

#94

On March 16 2012 03:36 Blasterion wrote:
Didn't they use frog DNA to clone Dinos in Jurassic Park? Elephant gene in mammoth only makes sense hahaha

Well that was actually a flaw in Jurassic Park, even though it was supposed to be filling a plot hole. If the dinosaurs were to have frog DNA 'intertwined' in their DNA, the creatures would be very very different, probably non-functional, unless the filler DNA was not "non-coding."

The same could and would go for the mammoth; it doesn't really matter how close of creature you chose, the DNA must be from a mammoth, otherwise you wouldn't actually create a mammoth. The only gaps that could be filled would be the ones that don't really decide what the creature is or how it functions.

I really don't know much about the topic, but this is just my two cents.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

March 15 2012 19:05 GMT

#95

AMG wolly mammoth like my favorite animal from the past, was amazing...RAWWR.

Ice Age 4 coming out soon too... tehe ^_^

arcHoniC

United States141 Posts

March 15 2012 19:05 GMT

#96

Jurassic Park here we come!

Moxx82

United States53 Posts

March 15 2012 19:12 GMT

#97

On March 15 2012 22:23 Arthemesia wrote:
I want a Jurassic Park in my lifetime. It'll be like a zoo with different sections. An ice age section, jurassic period, triassic etc. That would be so awesome.

You did SEE the movie, right? Turns out to be NOT SO COOL for a lot of the Park's visitors....

iMAniaC

Norway703 Posts

March 15 2012 20:16 GMT

#98

On March 15 2012 23:02 Darth Cuddles wrote:
did we learn nothing from Jurassic park?

Wikipedia writes:
Jurassic Park became the most financially successful film released worldwide as of that time, beating Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial which previously held the title.

I'd say we learned our lesson

On March 15 2012 22:56 barth wrote:
I believe the tricky part is separating actual mammoth DNA from contamination caused by microorganisms.

Giant woolly amoeba death viruses! That's even more awesome than ultras, for sure!

In all seriousness, though, this is absolutely awesome!