Posted on 08/16/2006 6:25:32 PM PDT by annie laurie
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.
Several well-preserved mammoth carcasses have been found in the permafrost of Siberia, and scientists estimate that there could be millions more.
Last year a Canadian team demonstrated that it was possible to extract DNA from the specimens, and announced the sequencing of about 1 per cent of the genome of a mammoth that died about 27,000 years ago.
With access to the mammoth’s genetic code, and with frozen sperm recovered from testes, it may be possible to resurrect an animal that is very similar to a mammoth.
The mammoth is a close genetic cousin of the modern Asian elephant, and scientists think that the two may be capable of interbreeding.
The frozen mammoth sperm could be injected into elephant eggs, producing offspring that would be 50 per cent mammoth.
The suggestion that it may be possible to recreate an animal that is at least part-mammoth has emerged from a study of mice by Japanese, British and American scientists.
While many types of mammalian sperm, including that of humans, can be preserved by freezing, mouse sperm is vulnerable to damage that can limit its ability to fertilise eggs when it is thawed.
A team led by Narumi Ogonuki of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research Bioresource Centre in Tsukuba, central Japan, has demonstrated that sperm better survives freezing if testes, or whole mouse bodies, are frozen.
Even sperm taken from mouse bodies that had been frozen 15 years ago was capable of fertilising mouse eggs and producing pups, the researchers found.
The work has technical implications for the breeding of laboratory mice for medical research, but it also shows in principle that mammalian sperm can survive in a body that has been frozen for several years.
This could mean that it is able to survive in similar fashion over much longer periods, as in mammoths frozen in permafrost.
“Restoration of extinct species could be possible if male individuals are found in permafrost,” Dr Ogonuki said.
“If sperm of extinct mammalian species, for example the woolly mammoth, can be retrieved from animal bodies that were kept frozen for millions of years in permanent frost, live animals might be restored by injecting them into oocytes [eggs] from females of closely related species.”
Chicken....
Duplicate posts aren't a crime, and the search function here remains suspect.
But I posted "Mammoth" into the search line, and ordered by By Title (Date) to get that list. Try it and see.
This mucking about with extinct species bodes ill for our futures. Sure - the scientists will do this, and next thing you know, wooly mammoths will be all the rage. They'll be in all the zoos around the world, and you know what happens next - we find out the hard way that they are sentient buggers - the reason they went extinct was because they got too smart for their own good. Next thing you know, they're getting out of the zoos by unlocking their own cages and trampling all over people. Soon enough, a couple will find the concession stand, and then you'll have wooly mammoths all hopped up on Red Bull and cotton candy. Then where will you be? You can't outrun them, because they're wearing rollerblades. Ever seen a pissed off, over caffienated, spun sugar obsessed wooly mammoth rollerblading down main street? Of course you haven't! That's because the Lord in all his infinite wisdom realized just how bad they would be for our modern society, and got rid of them But noooOOoo...we have to bring them back, just to show how smart we are. Next thing you know, Gladys is yelling at me because that bloody wooly mammoth is pulling up petunias again and for me to get the broom and scare him off, and dammit, I'm not going out there after him, he's got friends, a bunch of juvenile deliquent, formerly extinct, too damned smart for their own good, Red Bulled woolly mammoths are pulling up the damned flowers, and I'm supposed to go and chase them out of the yard. Not me I says, and hands the broom to Gladys and then, they make her the mammoth queen, and that's the last of I see of her, riding proudly on the back of some young wooly mammoth as they go rollerblading into the sunset. Just as well, I never really liked her much anyways.
I'm with you. I can't see any harm done with this... unless they grow up to be Dummiecrats.
Ted Nugent is going to need bigger arrows for his bow.
I believe you :)
As to why it didn't work for me ... a momentary glitch? Typo on my part? I certainly don't discount either possibilty ;-)
OK, probably the latter, since I can't even spell "possibility" tonight ;-)
A whole new market for really LARGE home freezers!
I was thinking the same thing! I can only hope I get a big 'ol haunch of a Mammoth that had Ray Romano's annoying voice!
So you would have a "Goodsized?"
I have always been fascinated by Mammoths. When I lived in Alaska I missed the opportunity to see one frozen in the permafrost of an old underground gold mine that had been deeded to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I did hear that the odor was... unforgettable.
No, but I've seen a hairy fat chick wearing a Kent State t-shirt that fits that description on 1st Ave in Seattle.
LOL
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should! "
Oh Jesus H. Christ on a crutch...here we go again...LOL!
Obviously an ancient white, male civilization caused global warming by wholesale burning of the wood in pristine old-growth forests and caused this animal to die. No animal can possibly go extinct on it's own, and the earth's temperature is a precise constant. It's only right that we bring this animal back to life after we destroyed it's habitat to begin with. We killed the dinosaurs too, but I don't know what we can do about that now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.