Extinct Mammoth, Coming To a Zoo Near You 312
Techmeology writes "Professor Akira Iritani of Kyoto University plans to use recent developments in cloning technology to give life to the currently extinct woolly mammoth. Although earlier efforts in the 1990s were unsuccessful due to damage caused by extreme cold, Professor Iritani believes he can use a technique pioneered by Dr Wakayama (who successfully cloned a frozen mouse) to overcome this obstacle. This technique will enable Professor Iritani to identify viable cell nuclei, and transfer them to egg cells of an African elephant which will carry the mammoth for a 600 day pregnancy."
That would be awesome (Score:4, Interesting)
Pleistocene park, coming soon to a zoo near you. Doesn't quite have the same ring as "Jurassic" though.
Still I am willing to bet that this creature, if created, will be called "Manny", after our Ice Age mammoth movie star... any takers?
Re:That would be awesome (Score:5, Insightful)
Meh.
We wiped them out once, we can do it again. If you're descended from genes too slow to outrun and outwit a woolly mammoth, how the fuck did you get here in the first place?
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The RCMP will save us again. The M is for Mamouth, and of course the old saying "We always get our mamouth."
Re:That would be awesome (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering that elephants can run at 40 km/h, which is 100 meters in 9 seconds flat, 200 meters in 18 seconds and 400 meters in 36 seconds, and the world records for those distances are 9.58, 19.19 and 43.18 seconds respectively, I fail to see how the inability to outrun a mammoth has ever been a problem.
Granted, we have no real knowledge of their actual speeds, so it could be 5 km/h but it could also be 60 km/h like a giraffe or 50 km/h like a white rhinoceros.
Humans have never really had a need to outrun any of our prey animals. We have relied on intelligence, stamina and weapons to take them down, not speed and strength.
But I'm guessing that just means you didn't descend from genes smart enough to outwit a cow.
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The birthing is unlikely to have negative effects since both species are closely related, have the same approximate size, and have no known physiognomy variations that can cause issues. Unless the host mother is allergic to mammoth wool...
Re:That would be awesome (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you think they'll have nut obsessed rodents?
As much as squirrels and others love nuts, I think some crows in Japan deserve credit for doing something different with nuts. NHK (via Mhz WorldView) reports that birds have learned not only to drop nuts in the roadway where cars break them open, but to do it at intersections where the traffic gets stopped so they can pick up the pieces.
PBS also reported it:
http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/brain/index.html [pbs.org]
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I'm sure giving birth to a mammoth will have no negative consequences. :-|
Maybe some for the mother/keepers and maybe even those near the zoo if a fence fails but I very much doubt there will be any large scale consequences from breeding mammoths. We would be able to deal with them long before they got a chance to establish a breeding colony.
It's the small fast breeding animals you really have to watch as once released into an ecosystem they can be nearly impossible to eliminate.
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So am I, although without the sarcasm.
Recall that our ancestors used to hunt those things down and eat them. Sheesh, if we ever need advice on handling a mammoth problem, we can always see what the Lascaux guys had to say.
Plus the scientific potential is enormous, even disregarding the awesomeness of it all. I, for one, would like to know if mammoths enjoy peanuts.
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They play an important role in the very good sci-fi novel The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi..
And they are not without negative consequences.
If you haven't read it, you'd probably enjoy it.
Re:That would be awesome (Score:4, Funny)
Re:That would be awesome (Score:4, Insightful)
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And think of the food....
There's that segment in the closing segment of the old Flintstones cartoon series where a drive-in serves ribs on a tray on the side of the car, and the car tips over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJu8RreAGnM&feature=related [youtube.com]
Re:Obligatory Dr. Ian Malcolm quote (Score:5, Funny)
Its okay. If elephants get wiped out we can wait a few centuries and then implant elephant embryos into mammoth's so they can get their revenge.
Re:Obligatory Dr. Ian Malcolm quote (Score:5, Insightful)
What bacteria will come from this animal that haven't been around since they are extinct?
Dude, the spontaneous creation theory for life went out of fashion around the time of Pasteur. The only bacteria this mammoth will possess are ones that are present in our world today. While the mammoth's own micro-environment will no doubt favor the growth of certain specific bacteria as part of its normal flora, it will be no more dangerous than turtles and chickens which carry Salmonella sp (responsible for typhoid, amongst other things), or armadillos which carry Yersenia pestis (responsible for bubonic plague aka black death).
While having your back scratched regularly by an armadillo is not a good idea, the presence of the pathogen in the environment does not automatically mean epidemics. There are a couple cases of bubonic plague even in US every year, FYI.
jaunty tune (Score:5, Funny)
were cloning DNA
Now I'm being chased by some irate velociraptors
Well believe me...This has been one lousy day
Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone shut the fence off in the rain
I admit it's kind of eerie
But this proves my chaos theory
And I don't think I'll be coming back again
Oh no
I cannot approve of this attraction
'Cause getting disemboweled always makes me kind of mad
A huge Tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer
Well I suppose that proves...they're really not all bad
Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone let T. Rex out of his pen
I'm afraid those things will harm me
'Cause they sure don't act like Barney
And they think that I'm they're dinner not their friend
Oh no
Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
What a crummy weekend this has been
Well this sure ain't no E-ticket
Think I'll tell 'em where to stick it
'Cause I'm never coming back this way again
Oh no...Oh no
Re:jaunty tune (Score:5, Informative)
Come on give Weird Al his due
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and for Jimmy Webb, who wrote MacArthur Park , performed by Richard Harris, of which Weird Al's song was a parody. It's a metaphorical description of the tragic end of a love affair.
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Re:jaunty tune (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems a little strange to me that so many sciency-types tend to like Jurassic Park. I mean, yes it does have dinosaurs and a girl who loves Unix.
OTOH: "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
So, in the end, the scientists are blamed for the whole thing. Not the person who decided to make it a theme park. Not the person who disabled all of the security. Not even the person whose job it was to think: "What if all of our security goes?"
The scientists.
Re:jaunty tune (Score:4, Insightful)
The book was a little different. The blame IMO was more on the way the rich old tycoon wanted to exploit the park for profit at any cost. The movie made him out to be a benevolent grandpa wanting to give every kiddie a stuffed sauropod.
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I want the passenger pigeon (Score:3)
I can do without the giant sloth, short nosed bear, dire wolves or the saber tooth tigers.
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I can do without the giant sloth, short nosed bear, dire wolves or the saber tooth tigers.
LARPing won't be complete without real dire wolves.
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the Florida giant beaver
ahhhhhhhhhh.... Rhonda
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm... (Score:3)
So who will be the lucky lady to carry for the first Neandertal born in 25,000 years?
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I'm curious what the mother elephant will think when a mammoth pops out. Would the creature be accepted?
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Of course, we are worrying about a mammoth which would be cared for better then many m
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....you ask of a slashdotter, shunned and banished by his mother to the basement?
Brilliant reality show idea! (Score:2)
So who will be the lucky lady to carry for the first Neandertal born in 25,000 years?
Actually sounds like a good idea for a reality show, when Charlie Sheen gets whored out . . . two and a half Neanderthals!
But, I guess, most women folk already have experience with living with Neanderthals.
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Your wife?
Pleistocene Park (Score:2)
Re:Pleistocene Park (Score:4, Informative)
This technique, I suspect, requires a pretty close relationship. You could probably manage it with Neandertals because they are very close to us, genetically, as mammoths are fairly closely related to modern elephants, but for other extinct animals where there are no close living relatives, I doubt you would be successful.
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Maybe they could do it over the course of several generations, by splicing genes in gradually. With the first generation, they'd splice in some genes, and create offspring with the closest living relative (for instance, the Indricotherium's closest relative is probably the Rhinoceros). This would effectively create a new species that's a hybrid. With the next generation, they'd splice in more of the original genes, yielding yet another new species, which is closer to the original prehistoric one than bef
I say blaze ahead fearlessly. (Score:3, Funny)
'Cause they might be yummy!
Re:I say blaze ahead fearlessly. (Score:5, Informative)
Some specimens [straightdope.com] were preserved well enough for people to try to take a bite. Most accounts of this are dubious at best but a few more credible accounts of having eaten mammoth flesh described it as being quite nasty. This is to be expected of a carcass that has been sitting frozen and half rotten in the Arctic since the last ice age. Now supposing that we found a few cell nuclei that looked good, the most likely outcome would be several hundred failed attempts if prior cloning experience is any indication. Genetic damage could in principle be corrected to a degree by hybridizing the broken strands with a very closely related species (in the case of dinosaurs it would be bird DNA; Ostriches to be specific, not frogs as was suggested in the Jurassic Park movies)
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Our ancestors certainly thought so - I'm pretty sure they ate them all.
YaBaDaBaDoo (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)
Eh...It's a living.
A Modest Suggestion (Score:2)
They would, of course, need enough forage. But once they begin to thrive, bring back sabor tooth tigers to control the mammoth population.
It would beat polar bear watching in Churchill all to hell.
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And I doubt that they would adapt to California politics and life style. Everyone know elephants are Republicans.
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And I doubt that they would adapt to California politics and life style. Everyone know elephants are Republicans.
Well, that 's the clean-cut kind of elephant. I'm not sure I've ever described a Republican as "wooly".
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Know what would be cool? Create a new park in northern Canada and release some mammoths there. They would, of course, need enough forage. But once they begin to thrive, bring back sabor tooth tigers to control the mammoth population.
Cool idea overall, but the sabre-toothed tiger part is unnecessary. The most effective predator of the woolly mammoth is still available.
-=Steve=-
Re:A Modest Suggestion (Score:5, Funny)
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Once they begin to thrive, open a hunting season on them.
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You know. Old school.
Now we'll find out.... (Score:5, Interesting)
If my theory is right and there is an ingredient in Mammoth meat that makes our species sane!
First step (Score:2)
Soon we will be able to put our heads in cryofreeze and become slow time travelers to the future.
Imagine! (Score:2)
Two all mammoth patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!
the secondary problem (Score:2, Funny)
once the mammoth is revived, how do we keep Sarah Palin from shooting it?
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Re:the secondary problem (Score:5, Funny)
Hide him in a library.
I've heard this before... (Score:2)
This is what we in the REAL world like to call a 'bad idea'.
Didn't anyone see Jurassic Park?
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This is what we in the REAL world like to call a 'bad idea'. Didn't anyone see Jurassic Park?
This is what we in the /. world like to call "+1 unintentional irony" -- you realize that Jurassic Park wasn't REAL, right?
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Yeah, those gentle herbivores could really wreak havoc!
Unlikely (Score:2)
Good luck (Score:2)
Modern cloning techniques don't have a fantastic success rate (~10% last time I checked; 30% from TFA). Even then, there doesn't seem to be an excess of surrogate mothers (African elephants, in this case.) Even harvesting the necessary eggs from the African elephants is tricky -- it's an invasive procedure, and operating on something the size of the elephant is no easy task.
Even assuming that all goes well, cloned animals are known to suffer from compromised immune function and generally short lifespans.
But Should We? (Score:3)
The major thing that comes to mind is that were bringing a creature back when it's native diseases now have 100k+ years of evolution on them. They'll have to keep it in a bubble.
Then again it seems a dwarf species existed until around 1700BC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth [wikipedia.org]
Re:before you do it (Score:5, Funny)
Fuck that, I can't wait until one of these things goes nuts and starts goring the fuck out of everything.
Re:before you do it (Score:4, Interesting)
Hannibal 2: The Carthaginianing
They're crossing the Alps and this time THEY'RE WARM
Re:before you do it (Score:5, Funny)
I can't. I don't even know what wine goes with elephant, let alone what wine goes with mammoth.
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Re:before you do it (Score:5, Informative)
lighten up and have a drink
I shall have a 3,400-year-old Mesoamerican beer [slashdot.org].
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Have a drink? (Score:2)
Does this mean we'll start seeing pink mammoths too?
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Does this mean we'll start seeing pink mammoths too?
Bartender, I'll have another . . . and don't worry, the pink mammoth is driving . . .
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lighten up and have a drink
Done and done.
But then that was the plan before I read the article, I had a beer in hand before I clicked the link. Does it still count?
Finally, a bit of serious advice on Slashdot (Score:2)
lighten up and have a drink
What do you suggest, with a lightly braised mammoth steak? A Montepulciano? Aperole with champagne before the meal? And a good calvados afterwards? I am looking forward to seeing mammoth on the menu in my local restaurants!
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Re:before you do it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:before you do it (Score:5, Insightful)
If this was an insect or small animal that might escape and breed you could have a point, but we're talking about a MAMMOTH. I seriously doubt they're going to manage to sneak off and start breeding in the wild without anybody noticing.
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I and my marauding hordes of test lab animal liberators will let the mammoths loose on the modern world one dark night. Run like the wind and be free, FREE, Manny! mwuhahahaha!
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Spears... and cliffs....
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Mimmoth infestations, on the other hand, are all-but-impossible to eradicate.
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You do realize that people lived at the same time as mammoths right? That we have cave paintings of hunting them? If they were superlethal to us, we'd know.
Re:before you do it (Score:4, Informative)
How did this get modded up?
There things used to be alive. If they had dire consequences on X population, X wouldn't be here today. They went extinct extremely recently. As in still freezer fresh.
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The lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, uh... staggers me.
No hold on, this is not some species that was obliterated by deforestation, or the building of a dam. [Mammoths], uh, had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction!
Dr. Ian Malcolm (rockstar)
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We killed them all once, and that was with HAND TOOLS!
Re:before you do it (Score:5, Funny)
A mammoth on a slippery slope would be very amusing to watch! Let's do it!
Re:before you do it (Score:5, Funny)
think of all the damage kudzoo is doing in habitats where it is non-native.
The mammoths will eat all the kudzu.
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yes, and then we can resurrect and let loose saber-toothed tigers to eat the mammoths!
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you're getting way ahead of the plan's logical steps, the Neanderthals and the creatures that will eat them to spare us a Neanderthal infestation are my solutions #5 and #6.
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Good idea. That shit is hard to kill/control.
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Re:before you do it (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a little different than insects or plants which invade non-native habitats. Insects, plants, small mammals, etc. all reproduce quickly, and can evade humans easily because of their small size. A few seeds fly around and suddenly there's an epidemic of kudzu, for instance.
Mammoths are very, very large, as should be obvious by their name. They're not going to sneak aboard a cargo ship without being noticed, and then go hide in the wild somewhere and reproduce like rabbits. If anything, they probably have an even longer gestation time than elephants, which already have a ridiculously long gestation time (which is part of why they're going extinct; they can't reproduce fast enough to make up for human predation, even though it's been massively reduced in recent decades).
I think the dangers here are non-existent. Elephants already have a very hard time in the wild; these things aren't going to get out and take over. Even if a couple of mammoths did manage to escape somehow (that'd be a massive security oversight wouldn't it?), it would be easy to find and recapture them within the 2 years or whatever it takes them to make a single baby mammoth. It'd be pretty hard to not notice a woolly mammoth running loose anywhere near humans. These animals are just going to be a curiosity, probably confined to zoos, and I think it's great that it might really happen.
The danger is if this same technology is used to "resurrect" other, much smaller extinct species. What would happen, for instance, if they brought back some prehistoric insects that were alive when the dinosaurs were around? That really could have problems like what you're talking about, because insects (even large ones) grow and reproduce very, very quickly, but are small enough to escape human confinement pretty easily, and then be very hard to track down and exterminate once in the wild.
Or what if they brought back the passenger pigeon, or the dodo bird?
Cenozoic Park (Score:2)
They're not going to sneak aboard a cargo ship without being noticed, and then go hide in the wild somewhere and reproduce like rabbits.
Good grief, Hollywood execs are looking for plots anywhere they can find them. Now you've given them the plot to Cenozoic Park!
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Actually, that's Cenozoic Park 2. In the first one, the mammoths will be on an island, terrorizing a group of tourists or visitors. Why mammoths (being herbivores) would terrorize anyone, I don't know, but I'm sure Hollywood will come up with some weird explanation for that. Maybe something about some saber-tooth tiger genes getting in there accidentally, creating vicious saber-tooth mammoths.
Hilbert's epitaph (Score:2)
Wir müssen wissen.
Wir werden wissen.
It's going to be done, because we're human beings, and that's what we do. Deal with it, and get over it. And pass the steak sauce.
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I don't think that's at all fair, Jurassic Park was some of Michael Crichton's finest work.
Wait. That didn't come out right.
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Re:before you do it (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
You realize you're quoting Jeff Goldblum, right?