How To Clone A Mammoth

psyconaut writes: "In a story that sounds more fitting for the big screen than the London Times, Japanese researchers are planning on cloning a mammoth by impregnating an Indian elephant. Apparently the source of the DNA will be a newly found mammoth specimen in Siberia. Due to genetic constraints, the final mammoth specimen will only be 88% pure mammoth and the process will take about 50 years."

Comments

Re:Why?

[Mwongozi]

"Why not?" is a much more interesting question than "Why?". It's how science advances.

Re:Need bigger cats

[rosewood]

Thats a scary thought... what if he locks me out of my house and I am forced to bang on my door and scream for my wife?

is this cloning!!??

[tanveer1979]

"If impregnating an Indian elephant with mammoth sperm produced young, that offspring would be impregnated with more mammoth sperm and the process repeated in the next generation, producing a creature that was 88 per cent mammoth. The process would take about 50 years."

This is not really cloning, this is similar to producing hybrid dogs by cross-breeding. And this does not really advance research, man has been doing this to crops, livestock and all for so long.
It just seems like researchers with nothing to do. The real step forward would be the Dolly method. That would be cloning.
Infact such a bit is underway in australia. Scientists are planning to clone a tasmaniana Tiger.
Now that would be the perfect push for cloning tech!

Is this like "pollution credits"?

[tlambert]

Is this like "pollution credits"? For every extinct species we bring back, do we get to take one out for free?

-- Terry

Re:Why?

[rtblmyazz]

Why not bring back a species that was extinct due to the actions of mankind like the Dodo bird, rather than something that nature or God extincted, probably for some "valid" reason ? It seems more fitting to bring something back that we destroyed by our own ignorance or greed.

Because.

[RobinH]

Why not bring back a species that was extinct due to the actions of mankind like the Dodo bird, rather than something that nature or God extincted, probably for some "valid" reason?

I believe the current thinking is that mammoths were hunted to extinction by men. Mammoths and sabretooth tigers became extinct about 12,000 years ago in North America, which coincides nicely with the arrival of humans on the continent. Hence, by your argument, we should bring them back.