Mammoth 'could be reborn in four years'

reply to post by Ilovecatbinlady


You might enjoy this fascinating documentary .

Here is part 1.

Raising the Mammoth

THE SCENE is a frigid, windswept corner of Siberia, where scientists labor to free a creature trapped in the ice 20,000 years ago. Raising the Mammoth is a documentary about locating a huge, prehistoric, ivory-tusks-poking-out-of-the-permafrost woolly mammoth. Later comes the really hard part of the expedition - lifting the mammoth by helicopter to a place where researchers will spend years studying it.

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If they succeed that would be incredible.

The modern biodiversity gets smaller and smaller every year. Apparently the "solution" is to bring back the biodiversity from 10k years ago lol

This is silly. Why? There isn't the space or the habitat to support a decent population of these animals and I feel if this is allowed, it will be a start of a lot of scientists thinking that they could and should bring back extinct species for no other reason than we can.

The earth can barely contain, feed and support the animals and the humans we have here now.

Not a good idea.

I'm okay with knowing it once lived and I can read about it. No need to see it alive.

Another thing, maybe they should use all of this energy to preserve the animals we already have on earth that are dying? Just a thought.

You mention a humanoid species,

the question i pose to you all is would this humanoid species be classified as an 'animal' and be allowed to be cloned, or would it come under 'human' and thus be un-ethical and banned?

Answer that friends,

reply to post by Ilovecatbinlady


I for one would not welcome a mammoth being reinstated into it's habitat. Clone it and keep it somewhere fine, do not reintroduce it to the wild.

You would mess up food chains and thus affect the balance in certain environments. Environments that have changed and adapted over thousands if not millions of years. Reinstating something that hasn't walked the earth in that time is a reverse to us travelling back in time, and establishing ourselves there with our advanced technology and knowledge, and muscling our way into that environment which we are clearly not meant to be a part of.

The planet is already going to hell in a handbasket, let's not mess it up any further eh?

reply to post by havenvideo


There is more credence to your fears then you may be aware.

Several years ago there was a story about possiblly attempting to modify/splice primate DNA with human DNA to serve as a slave species.

The arguement was that since they were never human it was ok to do so.

It may be that advancements in technology are sufficient now to allow an easier way to approach this idea. Bringing an early humanoid back is probably easier then trying to enhance monkeys. Genetics, at least publically, is not at a point yet where we can write/rewrite DNA with any certainty beyond crossing our fingers and hoping we get the right result.

My question however is this...what diseases/disorders will be brought back along with this species?


ETA...

Concerning the Mammoth's, if you allow paranoia to run rampant for a moment...why is it so important to breed an animal capable of surviving in an ice age environment?

If you explore Hollow Earth theory, you will see that Admiral Byrd saw live mammoths as he flew into the polar entrance to inner earth.

So why presume that mammoths became extinct? - they just relocated

can you imagine cloning Neanderthals? where would they keep them, under confinement i suppose. as per an earlier post about being used for soldiers i am not certain if they would be able to be trained to identify specific peoples. they would probably just attack anyone that seemed to threaten them, if they were violent in nature at all and run off into the jungles. that would be something to observe them living in the wild. however they would have to be destroyed then right away, because we all know what happened in Planet of the Apes...

reply to post by Ellie Sagan


It would adapt to our climate. The cloned animal didnt "live" back then. I agree though about not bringing it back. It should be let go and worry about the animals that will soon be extinct here. Not to mention they will be nothing but an attraction..

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
reply to post by havenvideo

 

We have no indication that Neandertals were brutish or barbaric. Sure they were powerfully built, but they also had brains larger than ours.

If anything the archaic humans who probably wiped them out through genocide and forced assimilation, aka rape, were the brutish barbarians.

Very true. In fact, in my Anthropology class I learned that the Neanderthals actually buried their dead and took care of their elderly, as well as developed an efficient tool making technique.

As for the mammoth thing, it would be cool to see a living breathing mammoth once again, but I have a feeling it would have a terrible life with all the people that would want to turn it into an attraction.

With all the talk about food shortage, it might be a good idea. We will definitely need more food if an Ice Age is coming. I have discussed with a Scientist friend of mine about my theory of the Sun drawing up moisture, He said this would cause and ice age first, until the ice crystal bubble forms. I started my book off with this theory, it is on the web, but I don't know if we can adverise our sites on ATS. It is free to read. Epoch Revelations.

Originally posted by PoorFool
So will it be half mammoth half elephant?

No, to be half and half it would be fertilizing an elephant egg with mammoth sperm (or vice-versa). This is cloning. They are taking the nucleus of a mammoth cell and putting it into an elephant egg. The egg then starts to diving using the instructions and DNA from the transplanted mammoth cell nucleus.

The end result will be an exact genetic clone of the animal that they took the cellular nucleus from.

Originally posted by Ellie Sagan
The curious scientist in me says I can't wait to see how it turns out. However, the practical side of me says this might not be so wise. I agree with others that it might not be such a good idea to bring something back to life in a world it's never known. It didn't live in a world like ours is now. It might be better for it to not come back.

I'm curious myself, but to say this is a world it's never known..... it's not like they're resurrecting a dead mammoth. This baby mammoth will be as clueless about this world as every baby (human and animal) that's ever been born. We learn to adjust. Now if we're talking about releasing a herd of these into the wild,.... not so sure about it being a good idea. The introduction of mammoths into the environment would most likely disturb the species currently inhabiting the land. Unexpected territorial changes could take place, throwing things out of balance. Then again it's not like animals all over the world don't have to deal with environmental and territorial changes on a daily basis, so...in the end maybe the mammoth would find it's place in this world after all. We'll see how this plays out. It might be 20 years before we see anything close to success.

This is very interesting news to read. The only problem I have with this news is why do weed a mammoth in today's world? Why do we have to play G-d? The world is much different today then when a mammoth walked the planet. I support the ideals of evolution and agree with Darwin on adaption in order for species to survive.