Resurrecting the Mighty Mammoth, Cheaply

somanyrobots writes with an interesting followup in the New York Times to the earlier-reported substantial reconstruction of the woolly mammoth genome: "Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million. The same technology could be applied to any other extinct species from which one can obtain hair, horn, hooves, fur or feathers, and which went extinct within the last 60,000 years, the effective age limit for DNA." (The Washington Post article linked from the earlier post was much more skeptical, calling such an attempt "still firmly the domain of science fiction." The New York Times article, while describing the process in similar terms, also calls attention to recent advances in sequencing DNA, as well as recoding DNA for cloning.)

Good!

We may well need an army of Mammoths to fight the mutant tool-equipped space spiders from that other earlier story. $10 million is a small price to pay to save humanity from the giant space webs.

Re:Good!

I don't care what kind of cosmic rays they've been exposed to, spiders wielding lubricant guns and hex wrenches are not scary. "Oh, look out, it's going to build some furniture and reduce wear on my bearings!"

Re:Good!

That's not how the spiders plan to use the lube and wrenches ...

mmmm Mammoth Burgers...

Well, the first few we resurrect will be interesting and a tourist attraction and all that, but once the public is used to them there has to be a practical application.

Mammoth Burgers sound good to me :)

Re:mmmm Mammoth Burgers... Same thought

Because most amputees would probably not want their missing limbs replaced with mammoth legs?

more exciting

is, from the same story, relegated to second interest, for some reason, the idea of resurrecting a neanderthal, the same way as the woolly mammoth. using chimpanzee as the starting cell lineage rather than human, for ethical considerations of course

but this guy won't be dumb. somebody will have to explain to him he's not the last of his kind... he is the 50,000 year old cloned reconstruction of his kind

weird, lonely, and possible on our lifetime

very cool, very freaky

Re:more exciting

But seriously, the prospect of bringing a flawed misfit sentient being into this world and explaining to them "oh, by the way, your species is extinct!" doesn't seem very humane or ethical to me.

You know... I didn't think I'd be the one to tell you this... but Locke2005, have you ever wondered why you were so much hairier than your "biological" father? Ever wonder why kids giggled when your name "Ug" was read in classrooms, and why you prefer deerskin over cashmir?

I'm sure you've come to the correct conclusion by now... If you don't believe me, the proof is right before your eyes. You're posting excitedly in a news post about mammoth burgers.

I'll let you get back to your flint and tinder... and... we're sorry about your entire species.

Why not bring them back

It's far from certain that mammoth died out simply from climate change. Take a look at this link: http://packrat.aml.arizona.edu/Journal/v37n1/vartanyan.html [arizona.edu] Mammoth survived thousands of years beyond what most people think, into historic times (1700 b.c) It was a place that man didn't reach (hmmm...coincidence?), but Wrangel Island was too small to support a large population of them. It seems that wherever man went, large animals encountered "climate change". I don't doubt that climate was an issue, but nor do I doubt that man was either.

The New Must-Have for Tech Billionaires

Forget rides to the space station or owning an electronic car company... the new must-have for tech multi-millionaires should be having your own herd of resurrected extinct species.

Somebody call Sergey and Larry and see if they can spare $10mm. Just don't fly the 767 for a few weeks and that'll save enough for the effort.

Then call Elon Musk and see if he wants to recreate the dodo or the Tasmanian tiger.

Or we make it trendy for celebrities -- forget adopting babies from Africa, the new trend is adopting and recreating extinct species! Get Angelina on board and everyone else will follow.

Better yet...

bring Michael Crichton back! ... man that post anonymously button looks pretty good right now... oh well

Re:Frankenstein

What about the animal? The poor thing will be the only one of its species in existence. No chance of reproduction (unless it's close enough to an elephant to mate), no herd to grow up in, no point to its life other than for us to ooh and aah over.

And yet would the mammoth's life experiences be any different from those of millions of other animals being kept as pets already? It would certainly have a much longer and healthier life than that of your average cow, chicken, or lab rat....

I think your sympathies are misplaced.

As for whether there would be a "point" to its life... it would be a significant scientific and technological milestone. That's more "point" than most domesticated animals have.

Re:Frankenstein

His post assumes that we wouldn't try to establish a breeding population. If we plan on bringing back an extinct species, what moral obligation do we have to prevent its extinction when the only specimen dies? Or is it okay, since our world has moved on since the last mammoth lived? If scientists make one, should we make more and restore a population? Would today's world be a good environment for a wild population or not? Would our creations be forever destined to live in zoos?

If we create a breeding population, how do we ensure genetic diversity? I am not a bioengineer, and have no way of knowing if diversity is already included in their method (taking a living elephant's skin cell and slowly reshuffling the DNA from elephant to mammoth) by simply using cells from different donor elephants for making each new mammoth. I guess that would depend on how reshuffled the DNA gets in the process of injecting new sequences.

Harmony never existed

Man just lived and existed, there was no idyllic eden like harmony. change occurs constantly, that ole evolution thing. Where man goes or is, change happens. Same as where these mammoths went (five tons of pachyderm beef can cause some localized disruption, just like elephants today cause deserts eventually by tearing down trees) We fought and killed and caused whoops forest fires and so on, made creeks run dirty from digging clams and mussels on the banks, caused erosion from harvesting tubers, changed the balance of the local flora by starting agriculture, took food from other animals by that same reason, ate the other animals, skinned critters to make our clothes and shelters, all of that stuff. If you mean just living feral as being in harmony, you still can, it's quite possible, just back away from the keyboard and go for it, I did it for several years, was quite a hoot actually. I consider it a large part of my education and what makes me appreciate life better and helped establish my sense of ethics and morals (not to get too schmaltzy about it). Took more than a few skills and some dam' good luck as well, nature plays no favs, you are allowed to screw up *badly* on occasion.

    With that said,there are probably way more than a billion people still live close to totally feral around the planet still.

    My short report on my "research experiment": The slickest thing in civilization today, one that most folks in the developed world take for granted and don't appreciate near enough, is clean running water from the tap. Everything else is nice, electricity is swell, gadgets are fun, supermarkets rock, but clean running water is *simply great*.

  And I'd take a mammoth pair to add to my herd here, just give me year's notice so I can adjust the fencing a little better.....

Re:Harmony never existed

Tell that to the american indians. They had a pretty harmonious culture.

You mean the 1,000 nations with cultures based on perpetual warfare with one another, the largest of which established the largest-scale assembly-line operation of human sacrifice in recorded history, and who as a group hunted to extinction almost not only the American species of Mammoths, but nearly all the indigenous mega-fauna in the Americas? Those American Indians?

Re:Frankenstein

I feel sad at a zoo cause you can't get at the tasty ones.

Re:Frankenstein

This is Slashdot; creatures with no chance of reproducing are par for the course here, I don't see why another one is so morally outrageous, especially one that's slimmer and less hairy than the average Linux hacker.

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Actually the price should be at least double that, because if they really want to ressurect the species, they need two, a male and a female.

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Noah, is that you?

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Actually, given in-breeding, if they wanted to get a viable population going, they would probably need a whole herd.

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Like I tell my kids...

It is not the cost of [insert animal here] it's the maintenance, food, license, vet shots.

Do you have any idea what your vet will charge to neuter a mammoth?

And we are talking about full-on GARBAGE bags to clean up after it, on walks.

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Please don't say "[insert animal here]" in a mammoth topic...

Re:Whoooooosh!

[sound of something going over your head]

Testicles?

Or the body of the guy who tried to remove them from the mammoth?

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Resurrect the species will take a lot more than just two...Inbreeding probably won't be good for the species.

But I think everyone is missing the point.. they said anything about 60,000 years ago.... Well that opens the doors for some kick ass revivals. let's not just do a mammoth.

Here is my short list

Dire Wold - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dire_Wolf [wikipedia.org]
Big Wolf

Diprotodon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diprotodon [wikipedia.org]
Big Marsupial

Smilidon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smilodon [wikipedia.org]
Giant Sabre Tooth Tiger Lion Thing

Haast Eagle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast's_Eagle [wikipedia.org]
Giant Eagle

Giant Moa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinornis [wikipedia.org]
Big Ostrich

Aepyornis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aepyornis [wikipedia.org]
Even Bigger Ostrich

Arctodus_simus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctodus_simus [wikipedia.org]
GIANT BEAR - (Don't Tell Colbert)
43% bigger than Grizzly

For a pretty comprehensive list of what might be available see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_extinctions [wikipedia.org]

Re:$10,000,000, eh?

Yes, when they streamline the production of mammoths, production costs will go down. But the real question is, are they going to pass the savings on to us or just keep more profits for themselves? And we all know the cost of the premium mammoths isn't going down any time soon. Can you imagine me hanging out with my friends at the Starbucks and everybody else has the good mammoth while I have the regular mammoth? Not going to happen.

Re:Fuck doing a Mammoth....

why can't we just combine Hendrix's DNA with the Mammoth's?