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DNA of Woolly Mammoth Fully Sequenced
jd writes "Scientists have decoded the mitochondrial DNA of the Woolly Mammoth. According to the article: 'the Mammoth was most closely related to the Asian elephant rather than the African Elephant. The three groups split from a common ancestor about six million years ago, with Asian elephants and mammoths diverging about half a million years later.' This work is tied into efforts by researchers to use DNA to analyze other extinct species, such as the cave bear, the Haast eagle and the American lion. The novel aspect of this latest work is that it involved stitching together almost 50 fragments of mtDNA in order to obtain the sequence as a whole."
Welcome our newly cloned mammoth overlords
Wait, they haven't started cloning them yet?
Too many zeros, not enough ones
They sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of the Wooly Mammoth, not the actual DNA of the Wooly Mammoth. Mitochondrial DNA is located outside of the cell's nucleus in your cell's mitochondria (power plants). You only inherit your mitochondrial DNA from your mother. It also mutates at a measurable rate, so it is perfect for tracking species across time.
A Fatal OE Exception has occurred, Sig will now reboot.
Saying "DNA of Woolly Mammoth Fully Sequenced" is pretty misleading, the reality is nothing close to that. In fact it's only the mitochondrial DNA which has been sequenced. And while mtDNA is useful for determining when a certain species diverged from another, or whether a certain person shares an ancestor with another, it won't allow for any Jurassic Park typ e scenarios. Mitochondrial DNA doesn't include the vast majority of DNA which actually codes for protiens and such . . .