Baby Mammoth Found Intact

knoll99 writes "Scientists unveiled the discovery Wednesday of a baby mammoth found in the permafrost of north-west Siberia. The remains of the six-month-old female mammoth were discovered in a remarkable state of preservation on the Yamal peninsula of Russia in May, a Reuters report said. The specimen is believed to be the best of its kind to date."

Go well with

[by Anonymous Coward]

some scrambled T-rex eggs, but then again I'm just that type of mutha fuckin balla.

Re:Go well with

[painworthy (979388)]

In other news, Rosie O' Donnell still reported to be missing.

Criminologists believe that she may have been abducted, but a truck powerful enough to hold such capacity is not known to man.

Tissue and fluids?

[An Ominous Coward (13324)]

The Jurassic Park-esque cloning talk is definitely going to be the focus of most of the discussion, but have any of the articles mentioned how well the tissues, organs, and fluids are preserved? This seems like an extraordinary chance to find hard evidence on what caused their extinction.

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[lordofthechia (598872)]

have any of the articles mentioned how well the tissues, organs, and fluids are preserved?

More importantly, what does mammoth taste like? Could this be the new secret ingredient in Iron Chef?

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[Rude Turnip (49495)]

More importantly...will it blend?

Re:

[Per Wigren (5315)]

Oh, Mammoth smoke. Don't breathe this!

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[sentientbeing (688713)]

Well you dont get rarer than extinct..

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[spoco2 (322835)]

Hah, you know, I was about to say "We already know what Mammoth tastes like as early explorers who found similar frozen specimens ate them"... but, well, I was wrong, no-one in modern times has to anyone's knowledge actually eaten mammoth meat [stupidquestion.net].

So, there you go, this is the best chance to find out!

And I was concerned when I read that it was being shipped to Japan that they would consider eating it, what with their terrible track record of eating endangered animals.

Re:

[StikyPad (445176)]

I'd wager heavily that the meat will be seriously tainted by freezer burn.

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[HTTP Error 403 403.9 (628865)]

I was concerned when I read that it was being shipped to Japan that they would consider eating it, what with their terrible track record of eating endangered animals.

I would be more concerned if this was found in China, they'd probably inject it with melamine, lead and diethylene glycol then ship it the U.S labeled as beef jerky.

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[Odin's Raven (145278)]

I would be more concerned if this was found in China, they'd probably inject it with melamine, lead and diethylene glycol then ship it the U.S labeled as beef jerky.

Still, that's better ingredients than you'd find in a Slim Jim. :-P

Re:Tissue and fluids?

[CrankyOldBastard (945508)]

In The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn describes how the zeks ate a frozen mammoth raw before it could be studied. This has more to do with their inadequate diet than how tasty mammoth is.

Re:

[geekoid (135745)]

I couldn't find any information on that. The article I read mentioned that they are looking into cloning it.

I hope the do so. I also hope it it purple with yellow spots, and smells like Green Apple flavored jolly ranchers.

That would be cool. it would also be a geneticist last day of work, but they would go down in history as the first great genetic prank.

Re:

[saintjah (1126939)]

That'd be interesting, but the fact that this mammoth most likely died from an unrelated cause and was frozen afterwards may work against it "holding" the information that we want to find out about extinction?

it's not that mysterious what caused extinction:

[circletimessquare (444983)]

us

whenever mankind shows up, the slowly reproducing, tasty giant beasts and megafauna disappear, sometimes pretty quicky

off the top of my head, it happened to

the auroch [wikipedia.org]

the irish elk [wikipedia.org]

the moa [wikipedia.org]

steller's sea cow [wikipedia.org] (wiped out in 30 years, go progress!)

i'm sure slashdotters here could pull out a couple of dozen other examples

that's a good point

[circletimessquare (444983)]

i would respond with qualifiers:

1. the megafauna i'm talking about would be the herbivores
2. the megafauna in the cold climates/ on islands are for more vulnerable than those in the tropics: easier hunting. there are also less food choices in cold climes. and slow reproducing island species are extremely vulnerable to extinction just by being small in number to begin with

Re:it's not that mysterious what caused extinction

[DougWebb (178910)]

There was a massive extinction of larger animals in North America 10,000 years ago, coincident with a new migration of people across the Siberian land bridge. Giant sloth, cave bear, sabertooth, mastodon, etc. were wiped out.

Also coincident with the end of the ice age environment these species were adapted to. The humans back then probably scavenged more than they hunted; easy pickings.

Also, one has to wonder why the buffalo, the moose, and the deer, which replaced the ice age herbivores in North America, weren't wiped out by human over-hunting. They seem a lot easier to kill than mastodon. Maybe it's because humans didn't start over-hunting other species until we developed guns?

Re:

[quantaman (517394)]

The Jurassic Park-esque cloning talk is definitely going to be the focus of most of the discussion, but have any of the articles mentioned how well the tissues, organs, and fluids are preserved? This seems like an extraordinary chance to find hard evidence on what caused their extinction.

From TFA

"Such a unique skin condition protects all the internal organs from modern microbes and micro-organisms ... In terms of its future genetic, molecular and microbiological studies, this is just an unprecedented specimen."

But Tikhonov dismissed suggestions the mammoth could be cloned and used to breed a live mammoth. Cloning can only be done if whole cells are intact, but the freezing conditions will have caused the cells to burst, he Tikhonov.

Re:

[Pedrito (94783)]

It doesn't really matter. DNA degrades over time, even if preserved in this fashion. It's extremely unlikely that they'd be able to find any viable DNA for cloning. There might be enough pieces in good enough shape for determining a lot about their genetic makeup, but that's likely going to come in the form of DNA fragments.

Turkey Baster..

[ynososiduts (1064782)]

Time to extract the DNA and impregnate an African elephant to mess with nature in a way we shouldn't.

Re:

[JebusIsLord (566856)]

According to TFA, they can't because they need intact cells, and they'll all have burst from the freezing process.

Re:

[djupedal (584558)]

"...and they'll all have burst from the freezing process."

Technically, cell rupture occurs as a result of the thawing process, and is not related directly to freezing.

It is possible to control thawing and avoid cell rupture if an organism is found while still originally frozen. I suspect something such as this 6 month old Mammoth has been subjected to more than one cycle of being frozen and thawed out.

Re:

[TheMeuge (645043)]

You don't need intact cells, but rather fairly intact nuclei. Nucleus is a more robust structure than the cell membrane, and I would't be surprised if we could find relatively intact nuclei in the tissue, depending on the amount of time that passed between the animal's death and the freezing of the body.

Re:

[geekoid (135745)]

"...way we shouldn't."

Says who?

Re:Turkey Baster..

[Garrett Fox (970174)]

To be fair, the purpose isn't to "mess with nature." It's not like scientists are saying, "Let's screw up the natural order of things," right? The point of doing this, if it's even possible, would be some combination of these closely related reasons: (1) satisfying our curiosity about what these things were like, (2) giving a species a second chance to live, (3) creating something interesting that no living human has seen, and (4) profiting from building an Ice Age Park. Aren't any of those legitimate reasons?

Re:Turkey Baster..

[suv4x4 (956391)]

The point of doing this, if it's even possible, would be some combination of these closely related reasons: (1) satisfying our curiosity about what these things were like, (2) giving a species a second chance to live, (3) creating something interesting that no living human has seen, and (4) profiting from building an Ice Age Park. Aren't any of those legitimate reasons?

It's a question of perspective. We can't possibly mess with natural order since we're part of nature. If we separate ourselves from the rest of the animals, then absolutely everything we do messes with natural order, even breathing air in and out (we're stealing oxygen that belongs to nature!).

There's a simpler guide: if we do it, would it result in a better (or neutral) situation for nature, and us, or worse?

- Artificial ingredients in food that harms us: don't do it.
- Artificial ingredients in food proven to not harm us: do it.
- Genetically engineered food: it's again a case-per-case basis, no ultimate stance.
- Revive ancient beasts: sounds like fun, what could go wrong? Are they gonna multiply overnight and take over the world?

Re:Turkey Baster..

[John Meacham (1112)]

not at all, humans killed off mammoths in the first place, brining them back would be righting a wrong of sorts.

Of course, what I _really_ want to see brought back is the giant ground sloth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium [wikipedia.org]
Imagine a huge furry clawed creature the size of a bull elephant wandering around on its hind legs towering over 20 feet tall. I can't wait.

Cloning

[wile_e_wonka (934864)]

I've heard that scientists hope to extract DNA from a mammoth and then use that to make one (by means of a female elephant). I wonder if there are still scientists hoping to clone a mammoth, and if so, I wonder if this baby mammoth has some good DNA (to date, all known mammoths' DNA had degraded too much for use).

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Are mammoths and elephants even closely enough related for this to work? Wouldn't the body just detect the mammoth embryo (oxymoron) as a foreign substance and try to get rid of it. We have enough trouble with transplanting organs from the same species, I can't imagine you'd have much luck growing a fetus from one species in the womb of another species. Also, since the DNA specimens are so degraded, what's the chance that they could fill in the holes in the DNA with some other animal (possibly an Elephan

Re:Cloning

[wile_e_wonka (934864)]

No idea. However, I just googled: mammoth elephan cloning and found some interesting things to read on the topic. From the first result:

October 17, 1999:
A team of French, American, Dutch and Russian paleontologists successfully airlifted a male, 23 tonne (25 ton) woolly mammoth from its grave in Siberia where it had been frozen for 20,000 years. It was almost complete except for its head which had been exposed to air in the past. Since the species has been extinct for over 10,000 years, some scientists have proposed that attempts be made to breed a living mammoth from DNA, sperm or cell nucleus retrieved from the carcass. A modern elephant ovum would be used, because it is the closest living relative to the mammoth.

This, sounds like the story I read about in which the scientists later decided the DNA was too degraded to use. As of the time I read the story the scientists were supposedly just hoping for a better specimen to come along. Perhaps they have one now.

Clone! Clone! Clone!

[BillGatesLoveChild (1046184)]

Let's start a petition: I promised my kids a baby Mammoth ride.

obligatory Dr Stephen Colbert...

[owlnation (858981)]

It seems the the Siberian mammoth population has tripled in the past 6 months...

clone it

[SolusSD (680489)]

clone it. clone it! clone it!! what good is all this "science" if we don't CLONE IT!!!

A question remains...

[Digitus1337 (671442)]

How should it be prepared? I'm sure whatever they decide, it will be delicious.

bad for future non-human paleozoologists

[wikinerd (809585)]

Not only humans made mamooths extinct, but we also unearth all of their remains so that the next intelligent species after our own extinction won't find any of them, at least not in good shape.

Re:They will come to us!

[Kadin2048 (468275)]

The next intelligent species will find us and be amazed at how many human corpses they've found lying around next to an artifact with what seems to be a mice-shaped object in their hand. It might take them a while to guess what we were doing,

I think what it has in its other hand will be a significant clue.

God must have put it there

[GrahamCox (741991)]

God must have put it there just to drive fundamentalists crazy ;-)

Re:God must have put it there

[Mr. Lwanga (872401)]

TFA has a typo, its 4000 years old not 40,000. The mammoth will soon take its rightful place next to the Jesus horses at the Creation Museum.

Ray Romano

[by Anonymous Coward]

Is that you ?

What the article didn't mention...

[heretic108 (454817)]

...was the discovery, 5 metres away from the mammoth, of an inscribed granite slate. Archaeologists were set to work on translating the inscriptions, and came up with a bulletin with the headline:

Climate Change A "Myth"
Coming Ice Age a "Fabrication"
-- Energy Company CEO

not really

[AlgorithMan (937244)]

Baby Mammoth Found Intact

except that it's dead...

A Mammoth?

[Anne_Nonymous (313852)]

A Mammoth? That's huge.

Re:A Mammoth?

[Walt Dismal (534799)]

Technically, it's not a Giant Baby Mammoth but the Economy Size Baby Mammoth, which feeds between 4 to 6 caveman families. Keep frozen until use. Do Not Refreeze.

Oven Preparation Instructions:

1. Place on large spit.

2. Build really big fire.

3. Keep Ugg, Son of Hoogah and his Sister Dimbo, away from fire.

Microwave Preparation Instructions:

(Hey, do you think we're stoopid? Cavemen didn't HAVE microwaves. They only had rotisserie cookers.)

Microwave Mammoth NOT RECOMMENDED.

For delicious mammoth recipes, write: Creation Science Cooking Institute, Atlanta, Georgia.

In Soviet Russia. ... (no, no YOU involved)

[gomiam (587421)]

...Pravda would have commented that the mammoth was so well preserved that the ones who found it were able to avidly eat its meat. And few would wonder what drives someone to eat raw unfrozen mammoth meat.

With apologies to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag archipelago".

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Wikipedia article on Draenei [wikipedia.org] in case anybody is as lost as I am. This is the great thing about wikipedia over any other traditional encyclopedia. Although some may say it's not as accurate, or reliable, it definitely has a wider breadth of knowledge and obscure articles than any other encyclopedia I've ever seen.

Re:that's nothing,just wait

[Evilest Doer (969227)]

Although some may say it's not as accurate, or reliable, it definitely has a wider breadth of knowledge and obscure articles than any other encyclopedia I've ever seen.

Plus, it has the words "Don't Panic" enscribed in large, friendly letters on the cover.

Re:that's nothing,just wait

[fireboy1919 (257783)]

In either case, the important question to be answered after having encountered the finest example of something we've never seen before is, "Will it Blend?" [willitblend.com]

*Note: I am not in any way affiliated with that site. I just want to see more crap go into blenders and be filmed.

Re:

[Lithdren (605362)]

They found a frozen child in your pants?! Dear god someone contact the FBI.

Re:

[geekoid (135745)]

ou know it takes years to do that stuff, right?

I dare you to find a quote that says they will do this, without sort of caveat like "If there is good DNA"

Re:

[simong (32944)]

The ice and permafrost will have melted and shifted a little recently to expose the body. This isn't to say anything about global warming as it's a fairly regular occurence in the trans-polar regions. Mammoths and lost mountaineers are lost and exposed all the time.