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Baby Mammoth Found Intact

Posted by samzenpus on Wed Jul 11, 2007 07:27 PM
from the pleistocene-park dept.
Biotech Science
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."
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  • Go well with (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11 2007, @07:30PM (#19832305)
    some scrambled T-rex eggs, but then again I'm just that type of mutha fuckin balla.

    • Re:Go well with (Score:5, Funny)

      by painworthy (979388) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @07:39PM (#19832411)
      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? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by An Ominous Coward (13324) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @07:32PM (#19832325)
    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.

  • Clone! Clone! Clone! (Score:5, Funny)

    by BillGatesLoveChild (1046184) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @07:38PM (#19832393) Journal
    Let's start a petition: I promised my kids a baby Mammoth ride.

  • obligatory Dr Stephen Colbert... (Score:5, Funny)

    by owlnation (858981) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @07:42PM (#19832427)
    It seems the the Siberian mammoth population has tripled in the past 6 months...

  • God must have put it there (Score:4, Funny)

    by GrahamCox (741991) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @07:47PM (#19832469) Homepage
    God must have put it there just to drive fundamentalists crazy ;-)

  • What the article didn't mention... (Score:5, Funny)

    by heretic108 (454817) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:12PM (#19832695)
    ...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 (Score:5, Funny)

    by AlgorithMan (937244) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:16PM (#19832737) Homepage

    Baby Mammoth Found Intact
    except that it's dead...

  • In Soviet Russia. ... (no, no YOU involved) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gomiam (587421) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @10:25PM (#19833753)
    ...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:Cloning (Score:4, Informative)

        by wile_e_wonka (934864) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:07PM (#19832633)
        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.

    • Re:Turkey Baster.. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by John Meacham (1112) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:14PM (#19832715) Homepage
      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.

        • Re:Turkey Baster.. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Garrett Fox (970174) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:45PM (#19832975) Homepage
          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.. (Score:5, Insightful)

            by suv4x4 (956391) on Thursday July 12 2007, @01:15AM (#19834791)
            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:A Mammoth? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Walt Dismal (534799) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:39PM (#19832927)
      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.

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