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Could we 'do a Jurassic park' on Mammoths?

  • 01-12-2010 1:24pm
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,225 ✭✭✭


    I was just thinking the other day, about the possibility of finding a well preserved mammoth specimen. Given the climate that these guys lived in, is it possible that we could extract some viable DNA from a frozen mammoth?

    mammoth-615.jpg

    Given this girl is 40,000 years old, and it is hoped she has usable DNA, could it be combined in some way with modern elephants, and clone something similar to a wooly Mammoth.

    Also, Mammoths survived as a dwarf species as recently as 1700BC on Wrangel Island in Russia. If we found a specimen frozen there, it would surely have some very usable DNA.

    Also, I wonder could we do the same for Neandertal man? Given when a species begins to die out, they move further and further into isolated areas, I'm willing to bet that some of the last places the neandertals survived could have been in the alps. I wonder could we ever find a specimen with some usable DNA if we came across a neandertal ice man, like Otzi the Ice man?

    OetzitheIceman-glacier-199109b.jpg

    What would your own personal views be about cloning a neandertal? Regardless of whether you think it is possible, would you be morally against it?


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 6,109 ✭✭✭Cavehill Red


    yekahs wrote: »
    I was just thinking the other day, about the possibility of finding a well preserved mammoth specimen. Given the climate that these guys lived in, is it possible that we could extract some viable DNA from a frozen mammoth?

    mammoth-615.jpg

    Given this girl is 40,000 years old, and it is hoped she has usable DNA, could it be combined in some way with modern elephants, and clone something similar to a wooly Mammoth.

    Also, Mammoths survived as a dwarf species as recently as 1700BC on Wrangel Island in Russia. If we found a specimen frozen there, it would surely have some very usable DNA.

    Also, I wonder could we do the same for Neandertal man? Given when a species begins to die out, they move further and further into isolated areas, I'm willing to bet that some of the last places the neandertals survived could have been in the alps. I wonder could we ever find a specimen with some usable DNA if we came across a neandertal ice man, like Otzi the Ice man?

    OetzitheIceman-glacier-199109b.jpg

    What would your own personal views be about cloning a neandertal? Regardless of whether you think it is possible, would you be morally against it?

    Neanderthals were humans. I don't think that's morally acceptable. I'd be up for cloning a mammoth though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭Kess73


    I think science is at a point where it could create a hybrid creature based on the DNA of an extinct animal.

    It would have to be something that went extinct not too long ago, and would need, im my opinion, modern day ancestors with similar DNA to create the hybrid and/or to act as a surrogate mother for the hybrid creature.


    The mammoth would qualify under these conditions, in theory anyway, but if it were indeed possible and probable, would it be smart to try and start with such a large creature whose temperament, feeding habits etc are unknown? And what do we do with the cloned animals if the process was a success? Do they become attractions in animal parks and nothing more than that, or do they get reintroduced back into the wild? It seems a terrible waste just to bring back a variation of an extinct creature just to turn it into a lab rat or an attraction in a park, but it also seems wrong on some levels to bring back a creature and reintroduce it back into a planet that it was deemed to become extinct upon first time round.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,225 ✭✭✭Yitzhak Rabin


    Kess73 wrote: »
    I think science is at a point where it could create a hybrid creature based on the DNA of an extinct animal.

    It would have to be something that went extinct not too long ago, and would need, im my opinion, modern day ancestors with similar DNA to create the hybrid and/or to act as a surrogate mother for the hybrid creature.


    The mammoth would qualify under these conditions, in theory anyway, but if it were indeed possible and probable, would it be smart to try and start with such a large creature whose temperament, feeding habits etc are unknown? And what do we do with the cloned animals if the process was a success? Do they become attractions in animal parks and nothing more than that, or do they get reintroduced back into the wild? It seems a terrible waste just to bring back a variation of an extinct creature just to turn it into a lab rat or an attraction in a park, but it also seems wrong on some levels to bring back a creature and reintroduce it back into a planet that it was deemed to become extinct upon first time round.

    Yeah, there is a whole quandary of moral problems to think about when you consider something like this. Personally I'd love to see it happen, but thats purely from a curiosity standpoint, I can't really think of any justification for doing it, other than that.

    If there was going to be some kind of re-introduction type of thing, it would have to be on one of the artic isles, or one of the Aleutian bay islands.

    Although a lot of the time, science, just for science sake, yields advancement in areas that you would never have considered. So maybe if someone undertook a project like this, just for the sake of furthering knowledge, it could open up gateways into other fields.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,027 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    I'd like to see a Neanderrthal alright, but morally no way, even if it could be done. Given we've sequenced less than 10% of their DNA we're a long way away. we may be surprised how little we'd learn too. Oh yea we'd get loads of data about growth rates, but culturally we'd like get feck all if he or she were raised with moderns

    Mammoths I'd be much more up for.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,225 ✭✭✭Yitzhak Rabin


    Wibbs wrote: »
    I'd like to see a Neanderrthal alright, but morally no way, even if it could be done. Given we've sequenced less than 10% of their DNA we're a long way away. we may be surprised how little we'd learn too. Oh yea we'd get loads of data about growth rates, but culturally we'd like get feck all if he or she were raised with moderns

    I wonder how different, or more to the point how similar they would be. Like if you cloned a Neanderthal and didn't tell anyone, would they assimilate well into our society. I wonder would they just be like everyone else, except a bit different looking, or would they have a whole different way of looking at and thinking about things. Or how would they perform in school compared to us. I wonder might we find that their extra cranial capacity lends to them being a bit of a genius, who knows.

    Obviously for anyone to do it, would be morally reprehensible, though a small part of me kind of would like some mad scientist to do it.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    I smell a movie franchise...
    Neanderthal Goes To School.
    Neanderthal Goes To School II: The College Years
    Neanderthal Goes To Kindergarten (prequel)


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Mad scientists recently tried to recreate giant dragonflys, albeit not by cloning. (link)

    Let us not forget that one extinct animal has already been cloned. (sort of)
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090210-bucardo-clone.html


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    That bucardo is a good idea, start with something so recent that it's dna is very viable.

    In fact how about cloning an existing animal (Not like Dolly the Sheep) but by using related species. (Which is how we would have to proceed with extinct creatures)

    The one that springs to mind is to clone a goat from sheep stock. Then when we have done that, compare our cloned animal to a real one to ensure we have done it right.

    Then perhaps clone a dodo from a pigeon. And gradually work backwards through time.

    Getting a clone of a neanderthal might be problematical though. Who would want to be the mother to what in effect would seem to be a freak of un-natural origin?

    As for Mammoths. I am pretty sure we have yet to obtain viable dna in full of a mammoth, of which there were a number of species anyway. Therefore the dna is likely to be a bit mixed.


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