Mammoths may roam again after 27,000 years

Times Online (U.K.) ^ | 08/15/2006 | Mark Henderson

[peyton randolph]

BODIES of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.

Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out...

[peyton randolph]

I'll take my mammoth steak well done.

[peyton randolph]

FYI - ping

[Jeff Head]

...and they will use them to impregnate what eggs?

[ex-Texan]

Jurassic Park cloning is just around the corner. LOL, LOL, LOL !

[Thombo2]

Steak?I want one for a pet:)

[MHGinTN]

Well, if they use the sperm with an elephant ovum, for instance, we won't have a real mammoth. But it would be interesting to try and clone a mammoth using an elephant denucleated ovum.

[JRios1968]

I'll have the rib platter...

[peyton randolph]

...and they will use them to impregnate what eggs?

---

Article suggests using elephant eggs...i.e. half-mammoth/half-elephant...A mammophant or an elephammoth?

[EagleUSA]

...and a mammoth, looking alot like Michael Moore, stumbles out of another IHOP after consuming six orders of pancakes.... :-)

[peyton randolph]

But it would be interesting to try and clone a mammoth using an elephant denucleated ovum.

---

Dang...My garage is already full...where would I put this experiment? ;-)

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1568683/posts
A Real-Life Jurassic Park

[peyton randolph]

..and a mammoth, looking alot like Michael Moore, stumbles out of another IHOP after consuming six orders of pancakes.

---

Going to create the conservative diet plan...a book containing nothing but pictures of Michael Moore, Helen Thomas, Hillary Clinton, and Rosie O'Donnell. Look at the pics before each meal and the just try to eat.

Down side is it might have the side effect of involuntary bulemia.

[Jeff Head]

So...a Wooly Elemoth? Or a Wooly Mammothant.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This is all a pipe-dream from scientists who just want more money for funding. They're a joke just like the scientists in those "Far Side" cartoons.

[Jeff Head]

A Woolaphant?

[peyton randolph]

Thanks for the link. Can't believe MSNBC beat UK Times by more than a half a year on this story.

[peyton randolph]

Think I'd just call it "dinner." :-)

[chadwimc]

When does the season open? What are the bag limits? Can I bait 'em?

[Spruce]

Why?

[Calpernia]

The story was out way before MSNBC picked it up too. I saw info about it on the Human Genome message boards.

I can't help but wonder if they have had success with it. Did you see this?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669608/posts
Pterosaur-like Creatures Reported in Papua New Guinea

[EagleUSA]

Look at the pics before each meal and the just try to eat.
-----
Oh, man, that is one rough diet plan. Better stick with Weight Watchers --- :-)

[Tammy8]

Don't laugh~ if it becomes possible some idiot/s will bring back dinosaurs and other creatures that we probably don't need and can't deal with. I'm quite sure there are people racking their brains trying to come up with ways to accomplish this.

[lastchance]

Let's not forget along with Mammoth comes Mammoth droppings? You think global warming is a problem now??? Wait till you get a whiff of mammoth methane.

[peyton randolph]

Pterosaur-like Creatures Reported in Papua New Guinea

---

Cool. Be interesting to see how this story develops.

[SunkenCiv]

in addition to Calpernia's topic (linked above):

Woolly mammoth genome comes to life (Jurassic Park, here we come)
EurekAlert! | December 22, 2005 | Staff
Posted on 12/23/2005 12:33:04 AM EST by DaveLoneRanger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1545856/posts

and related:

Gene Reveals Mammoth Coat Colour
BBC | 7-6-2006 | Rebecca Morelle
Posted on 07/06/2006 3:43:11 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661412/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Mammoth told me there'd be days like this.

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SengirV]

[festus]

...and they will use them to impregnate what eggs?

Well since you asked...........

[Calpernia]

The good thing is, those Mammoth droppings can be used to generate electricity.

http://www.breederville.com/auction/forumtopic.php?topic=67&boardid=1
Vt. Dairy Farm Harnesses Power of Cow Pies

[Jeff Head]

Ugh!

[goodnesswins]

LOL....I don't think SHE has any eggs left.....LOLLLL

[SunkenCiv]

DNA scholars hope to stock Siberia 'park' with mammoths
Japan Times | August 20, 2002 | JULIAN RYALL
Posted on 08/22/2002 12:12:32 PM EDT by Korth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/737586/posts

Call to restock North America’s large mammals (Lions, Tigers,Bears Alert)
NewScientist.com | 18:00 17 August 2005 | Kurt Kleiner
Posted on 08/17/2005 1:56:34 PM EDT by 11th_VA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1465229/posts

Pleistocene Park? On the reintroduction of species
NewScientist.com | 17 August 2005 | Kurt Kleiner
Posted on 08/20/2005 5:15:44 PM EDT by sociotard
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467389/posts

[SunkenCiv]

also related:

Mammoths stranded on Bering Sea island delayed extinction
University of Alaska Fairbanks | 16-Jun-2004 | Contact: Marie Gilbert
Posted on 06/17/2004 11:07:34 PM EDT by ckilmer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1155606/posts

Ice age bacteria brought back to life
www.NewScientist.com | 2/25/2005 | Kelly Young
Posted on 02/25/2005 3:57:59 PM EST by aimhigh
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1351150/posts

Uncovering Ice Age Archaeology In Jordan
Daily Star | 8-24-2004 | Staff
Posted on 08/24/2004 11:05:50 AM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1198242/posts

[Calpernia]

What will the dangerous dog breed banners do when the orders are put in for T Rexes?

[SunkenCiv]

Feed the dangerous dog breeds to the terrible lizards?

[Gamecock]

Well I'm not cleaning up after them.

[hosepipe]

Worse than dinos that run in packs like wolves..
are Muzzies.. More intelligent than a dino but with less morality..

[imahawk]

I always wanted a side of ribs like in the start of the flintstones.

[pepsionice]

I'm willing to bet that a T-Rex will be brought back to life in about 100 years. It will be interesting to see just how much money they waste on this...and where they intend to let ole T roam.

[ndt]

"Be interesting to see how this story develops."

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one. Pterosaur-like creatures have been reported from New Guinea (and South America for that matter) for decades. I'm afraid this is just a bigfoot with wings. Actually it would be harder to hide a Pterosaur since they are flyers. Not saying it isn't true, I would love for it to be, just not likely.

[imahawk]

Aggh!.Im not hungry anymore.

[spinestein]

Did someone say "ELEPHANT EGGS?"



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Horton_hatches_the_egg.jpg

[Plutarch]

Mammoths, and other large mammals, only went extinct in North America when they were hunted to extinction by 12,000 years ago, just as soon as humans made it over the Bering. Mammoths, giant sloths, etc, are a natural part of our ecosystem and thus should be returned to the wild in North America.

[SunkenCiv]

one more:

Mammoth plan for giant comeback
news.Telegraph.uk
Posted on 12/20/2005 8:56:21 AM EST by Grendel9
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1543901/posts

[Rockitz]

Paging Fred Flintstone! Paging Fred Flintstone!

[WFTR]

Don't laugh~ if it becomes possible some idiot/s will bring back dinosaurs and other creatures that we probably don't need and can't deal with.

They couldn't be any worse than the liberals that we already have.

[GeronL]

Oh come on.... I thought they believed in evolution... why would they want to undo it?

[aruanan]

...and they will use them to impregnate what eggs?

Females are impregnated. Eggs are fertilized. Since sperm are either male or female, they'd have everything they need, using denucleated elephant eggs to produce both male and female mammoths.

[Clock King]

I'll take my mammoth steak well done.

Yeah, but do you have this guy's skull structure for chewing on mammoth meat? Gotto be pretty tough no matter how long you boil it.

We don't have to eat everything.

[Nathan Zachary]

wooly mamoths were not "ice age" animals. they were tropical animals like all elephants. The most famous of all mammoths, the frozen Berezovka mammoth, is displayed in the Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the struggling position in which he was found near Siberia’s Berezovka River, just inside the Arctic Circle. His trunk and much of his head, reconstructed in this display, had been eaten by predators before scientists arrived in 1901. In 1977, the first of two complete baby mammoths was found—a 6–12-month-old male named “Dima.” Several rhinoceroses have also been found. Other fleshy remains come from a horse,a young musk ox, a wolverine, voles, squirrels, a bison, a rabbit, and a lynx. Nikolai Vereshchagin, Chairman of the Russian Academy of Science’s Committee for the Study of Mammoths, estimated that more than half a million tons of mammoth tusks were buried along a 600-mile stretch of the Arctic coast. The mammoth’s hairy coat no more implies an Arctic adaptation than a woolly coat does for a sheep. The mammoth lacked erector muscles that fluff up an animal’s fur and create insulating air pockets. Neuville, who conducted the most detailed study of mammoth skin and hair, wrote: “It appears to me impossible to find, in the anatomical examination of the skin and [hair], any argument in favor of adaptation to the cold.” Long hair on a mammoth’s legs hung to its toes. Had it walked in snow, snow and ice would have caked on its hairy “ankles.” Each step into and out of snow would have pulled or worn away the “ankle” hair. All hoofed animals living in the Arctic, including the musk ox, have fur, not hair, on their legs. Fur, especially oily fur, holds a thick layer of stagnant air (an excellent insulator) between the snow and skin. With the mammoth’s greaseless hair, much more snow would touch the skin, melt, and increase the heat transfer 10–100 fold. Later refreezing would seriously harm the animal. Skin. Mammoth and elephant skin are similar in thickness and structure. Both lack oil glands, making them vulnerable to cold, damp climates. Arctic mammals have both oil glands and erector muscles—equipment absent in mammoths. Fat. Some animals living in temperate zones, such as the rhinoceros, have thick layers of fat, while many Arctic animals, such as reindeer and caribou, have little fat. Thick layers of fat under the skin simply show that food was plentiful. Abundant food implies a temperate climate. Elephants. The elephant—a close approximation to the mammoth lives in tropical or temperate regions, not the Arctic. It requires “a climate that ranges from warm to very hot,” and “it gets a stomach ache if the temperature drops close to freezing. Newborn elephants are susceptible to pneumonia and must be kept warm and dry. Hannibal, who crossed the Alps with 37 elephants, lost all but one due to cold weather. Water. If mammoths lived in an Arctic climate, their drinking water in the winter must have come from eating snow or ice. A wild elephant requires 30–60 gallons of water each day. The heat needed to melt snow or ice and warm it to body temperature would consume about half a typical elephant’s calories. Unlike other Arctic animals, the trunk would bear much of this thermal (melting) stress. Nursing elephants require about 25% more water. Salt. How would a mammoth living in an Arctic climate satisfy its large salt appetite? Elephants dig for salt using their sharp tusks. In rock-hard permafrost this would be almost impossible, summer or winter, especially with curved tusks. Nearby Plants and Animals. The easiest and most accurate way to determine an extinct animal’s or plant’s environment is to identify familiar animals and plants buried nearby. For the mammoth, this includes rhinoceroses, tigers, horses, antelope, bison, and temperate species of grasses. All live in warm climates. Some burrowing animals are frozen, such as voles, who would not burrow in rock-hard permafrost. Even larvae of the warble fly have been found in a frozen mammoth’s intestine—larvae identical to those found in tropical elephants today. No one argues that animals and plants buried near the mammoths were adapted to the Arctic. Why do so for mammoths? Temperature. The average January temperature in northeastern Siberia is about -28°F, 60°F below freezing! During the Ice Age, it was much colder. The long, slender trunk of the mammoth was particularly vulnerable to cold weather. A six-foot-long nose could not survive even one cold night, let alone an eight-month-long Siberian winter or a sudden cold snap. For the more slender trunk of a young mammoth, the heat loss would be deadly. An elephant usually dies if its trunk is seriously injured. No Winter Sunlight. Cold temperatures are one problem, but six months of little sunlight during Arctic winters is quite another. While some claim that mammoths were adapted to the cold environment of Siberia and Alaska, vegetation, adapted or not, does not grow during the months-long Arctic night. In those regions today, vegetation is covered by snow and ice ten months each year. Mammoths had to eat—voraciously. Elephants in the wild spend about 16 hours a day foraging for food in relatively lush environments, summer and winter. Three Problems. Before examining other facts, we can see three curious problems. First, northern Siberia today is cold, dry, and desolate. Vegetation does not grow during dark Arctic winters. How could millions of mammoths and other animals, such as rhinoceroses, horses, bison, and antelope, feed themselves? But if their environment was more temperate and moist, why did it change? Second, the well-preserved mammoths and rhinoceroses must have been completely frozen soon after death or their soft internal parts would have quickly decomposed. Guthrie has written that an unopened animal continues to decompose long after a fresh kill, even in very cold temperatures, because its internal heat can sustain microbial and enzyme activity as long as the carcass is completely covered with an insulating pelt. Because mammoths had such large reservoirs of body heat, the freezing temperatures must have been extremely low. Finally, their bodies were buried and protected from predators, including birds and insects. Such burials could not have occurred if the ground were perpetually frozen as it is today. Again, this implies a major climate change, but now we can see that it must have changed dramatically and suddenly. How were these huge animals quickly frozen and buried—almost exclusively in muck, a dark soil containing decomposed animal and vegetable matter? Muck. Muck is a major geological mystery. It covers one-seventh of the earth’s land surface—all surrounding the Arctic Ocean. Muck occupies treeless, generally flat terrain, with no surrounding mountains from which the muck could have eroded. Russian geologists have in some places drilled through 4,000 feet of muck without hitting solid rock. Where did so much eroded material come from? What eroded it? Oil prospectors, drilling through Alaskan muck, have “brought up an 18-inch-long chunk of tree trunk from almost 1,000 feet below the surface. It wasn’t petrified—just frozen.” The nearest forests are hundreds of miles away. Williams describes similar discoveries in Alaska: Though the ground is frozen for 1,900 feet down from the surface at Prudhoe Bay, everywhere the oil companies drilled around this area they discovered an ancient tropical forest. It was in frozen state, not in petrified state. It is between 1,100 and 1,700 feet down. There are palm trees, pine trees, and tropical foliage in great profusion. In fact, they found them lapped all over each other, just as though they had fallen in that position. How were trees buried under a thousand feet of hard, frozen ground? We are faced with the same series of questions we first saw with the frozen mammoths. Again, it seems there was a sudden and dramatic freezing accompanied by rapid burial in muck, now frozen. Clearly. mammoths did not live in the cold artic, but rather, a tropical one. For many more facts, see Frozen Mammoths