Woolly Mammoth to be Brought Back to Life

[Bullwinkle]

And nothing could possibli go wrong.  Possibly go wrong.

Woolly Mammoths will walk again within 5 years

Jurassic Park Reality Show?  No, just reality.

[ydejin]

Well, at least it's a herbivore. 

I guess they have to start somewhere before they build up to raptors which communicate using blow holes in their head.

[Razgon]

Hah, I like one of the comments

I wonder if they could bring back Winston Churchill.. Maybe he could get England back into shape.. ;-)

[Ralph-Wiggum]

They've been talking about doing this for the last 15 years and it's always been about "five years away". I'll believe it when I see it.

FWIW, it's not an easy task to clone any animal, let alone an extinct animal. If the DNA is damaged in any way, which it almost certainly will be, what do you do? They could try using elephant DNA to fill in gaps, but that is incredibly difficult to do. And who is to say that those gaps they fill in won't make the embryo inviable? Changing one section of DNA can have downstream effects on hundreds of other genes. Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it.

[metallicorphan]

slightly off topic,i saw on a news report last night that they are cloning millions of coral reef,because of global warming the reef is in danger...while i don't actually see how cloning the reef will stop the Global Warming problem or maybe i should say i don't see cloning will fix the depleting coral reef problem,it is cool that they can do it

Not really sure why they are cloning the Mammoth,is it 'because we can'?..which is fine by me,i am not going to go all Jeff Goldblum ...one thing does concern me is that mammoths are a lot bigger than Elephants,so surely when its born it will be bigger than a normal baby elephant,unless they genetically mess about with the size,it doesn't sound good for the elephant who's womb this is going in

if it is 'because we can'...why don't they do the Dodo bird?,we discovered that bird and then 80 years later it was extinct,at least it would deserve a 'second life',as it was us who made it extinct in the first place

[Razgon]

I think its because the Science and Weapons Application Division can use their blood for research.

[hepcat]

Not really sure why they are cloning the Mammoth,is it 'because we can'?..which is fine by me,i am not going to go all Jeff Goldblum ...one thing does concern me is that mammoths are a lot bigger than Elephants,so surely when its born it will be bigger than a normal baby elephant,unless they genetically mess about with the size,it doesn't sound good for the elephant who's womb this is going in

if it is 'because we can'...why don't they do the Dodo bird?,we discovered that bird and then 80 years later it was extinct,at least it would deserve a 'second life',as it was us who made it extinct in the first place

Sarah Palin has hunted, killed and eaten every single game animal in existence.  It's only natural that her vast fortune now be funneled into the creation of new, more dangerous prey.  If she and Trigger (or whatever the kid's name is) aren't feasting on Mammoth Burgers by this time next year, the terrorists have won.

[raydude]

And nothing could possibli go wrong.  Possibly go wrong.

Woolly Mammoths will walk again within 5 years

Jurassic Park Reality Show?  No, just reality.

Put it on an island along with some other big extinct animals and put 20 survivors and Jeff Probst on it. Call it Survivor: Jurassic Park where the one voted out has to live outside the protected compound. I would watch it.

[Moliere]

Not really sure why they are cloning the Mammoth,is it 'because we can'?..which is fine by me

Reminds me of this recent comic from SMBC:

[PR_GMR]

Just a bad, bad idea. 'Let's bring back an animal that's been dead for thousands of years even though we can't keep the ones that do live now from going extinct because of the horrible way we're treating the environment!'.

[leo8877]

Just a bad, bad idea. 'Let's bring back an animal that's been dead for thousands of years even though we can't keep the ones that do live now from going extinct because of the horrible way we're treating the environment!'.

 

[Ralph-Wiggum]

if it is 'because we can'...why don't they do the Dodo bird?,we discovered that bird and then 80 years later it was extinct,at least it would deserve a 'second life',as it was us who made it extinct in the first place

I think most of the current evidence suggests that humans were also responsible for the mammoth extinction. Granted, that happened 10,000 years ago and not 80, but still....

Just a bad, bad idea. 'Let's bring back an animal that's been dead for thousands of years even though we can't keep the ones that do live now from going extinct because of the horrible way we're treating the environment!'.

I don't think the goal is to repopulate the world with mammoths. I think the goals are:

1) see if cloning an extinct animal is possible
2) Have a real live mammoth that can be studied. How cool is it to be able to directly compare the behavior and genetics of mammoths and elephants?
3).....
4)profit!

[hepcat]

I think most of the current evidence suggests that humans were also responsible for the mammoth extinction. Granted, that happened 10,000 years ago and not 80, but still....

We must REALLY freakin' hate Wooly Mammoths to basically kill them off, revive them, then kill them off again...

[CeeKay]

Harmless because it's a herbivore my ass!

[heloder]

I don't think the goal is to repopulate the world with mammoths. I think the goals are:

1) To see how mammoth steaks taste.

Fixed!

[Razgon]

Wow - That movie has Summe Glau in it? MUST SEE!!

[Roguetad]

That's awesome, I didn't realize they were 200feet tall.  That must be the bull.

I don't think it's fair that we bring back the mammoth and not the dodo bird.

[CeeKay]

they should really focus on bringing back important things, like disco.  I know PR_GMR and HepC are chomping at the bit to break out their afros and bell bottoms.

[Bullwinkle]

That's awesome, I didn't realize they were 200feet tall.  That must be the bull.

I don't think it's fair that we bring back the mammoth and not the dodo bird.

I don't think it's a question of what animal we should bring back so much as what animal do we happen to have well-preserved DNA for.

[Canuck]

I don't think it's fair that we bring back the mammoth and not the dodo bird.

What, and ruin a perfectly good sentence, "Dead as a dodo?"
Heaven forbid!
Not sure if this is a good idea although it would be cool as hell to see if it could be done.  Who wouldn't want to see a creature that hasn't been seen for 10,000 years?  On the other hand, the mammoth died out for a reason-probably not a good reason but have their odds of survivability really increased since the time they last died out?  I don't think so. Back then they had far fewer natural enemies and far more habitat and they still died.

[Ironrod]

Pretty cool from a scientific novelty perspective, but I wonder if bringing an Ice Age mammal into a world experiencing runaway warming has occurred to anyone as a dubious idea. I mean, in a few decades even polar bears won't be able to survive anymore.

[Alefroth]

Not really sure why they are cloning the Mammoth,is it 'because we can'?..which is fine by me,i am not going to go all Jeff Goldblum ...one thing does concern me is that mammoths are a lot bigger than Elephants,so surely when its born it will be bigger than a normal baby elephant,unless they genetically mess about with the size,it doesn't sound good for the elephant who's womb this is going in

if it is 'because we can'...why don't they do the Dodo bird?,we discovered that bird and then 80 years later it was extinct,at least it would deserve a 'second life',as it was us who made it extinct in the first place

Sarah Palin has hunted, killed and eaten every single game animal in existence.  It's only natural that her vast fortune now be funneled into the creation of new, more dangerous prey.  If she and Trigger (or whatever the kid's name is) aren't feasting on Mammoth Burgers by this time next year, the terrorists have won.

I don't think her womb is big enough, either.

Ale

[Punisher]

they should really focus on bringing back important things, like disco.

There are some lines that science just shouldn't cross....

[Purge]

Pretty cool from a scientific novelty perspective, but I wonder if bringing an Ice Age mammal into a world experiencing runaway warming has occurred to anyone as a dubious idea. I mean, in a few decades even polar bears won't be able to survive anymore.

Pfft.

Spoiler for Science has already come up with a solution...:

[Purge]

Also, I could see it going horribly wrong...

Spoiler for Hiden:

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I don't think it's fair that we bring back the mammoth and not the dodo bird.

The dodo birds are passe. I want to see a giant sloth!

[Purge]

Or those bigass turtles.

[CeeKay]

Or those bigass turtles.

hey now, Turtle is very sensitive about his big ass, so we're not supposed to mention it.

[Purge]

Wax on, whacks off?

[Punisher]

Or those bigass turtles.

Leonardo, Michealangelo, Donatello, or Raphael?

[Bullwinkle]

Also, I could see it going horribly wrong...

Spoiler for Hiden:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Cthelephant?

[hepcat]

Horribly wrong?  Or horribly right!  I would worship that magnificent bastard in a heartbeat.  This whole christian god thing ain't been working out for me.  Too many downsides, not enough upsides.  If your god can promise me a fixed rate home mortgage at a reasonable price at the very least, I'm in.

[Razgon]

If I promise you that, HepC, would you worship me? 

[hepcat]

Can't worship Danes...unless they're Great Danes.

[Bullwinkle]

That was a lame dane.