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Scientists Recover Wooly Mammoth Blood

Posted by Soulskill on from the wooly-mammoth-vampires-very-excited dept.

westtxfun writes "'Russian scientists claimed Wednesday they have discovered blood in the carcass of a woolly mammoth, adding that the rare find could boost their chances of cloning the prehistoric animal.' As scientists unearthed the recent find, very dark blood flowed out from beneath the mammoth, and the muscle tissue was red. This is the best-preserved specimen found so far and they are hopeful they can recover DNA and clone a mammoth. Semyon Grigoriev, one of the researchers, said, 'The approximate age of this animal is about 10,000 years old. It has been preserved thanks to the special conditions, due to the fact that it did not defrost and then freeze again. We suppose that the mammoth fell into water or got bogged down in a swamp, could not free herself and died. Due to this fact the lower part of the body, including the lower jaw, and tongue tissue, was preserved very well. The upper torso and two legs, which were in the soil, were gnawed by prehistoric and modern predators and almost did not survive.'"

6 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Eat it, Charlie Sheen by Mystakaphoros · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tiger blood is just so passe now.

  2. All of the modern conveniences will now be ours by Dahamma · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wooly mammoth vacuum cleaners, wooly mammoth shower heads, the possibilities for the modern stone age family are endless...

  3. Re:Photo Op by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Being a pretentious douche, however, is universal (ok, maybe not among those aboriginal groups).

  4. Re:Photo Op by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So is drinking beer so cold you can't feel any taste.

    A custom that is dying a bit on account of the advent better small, local, and craft beers. Now if the smaller breweries can only avoid fratricide. But, seriously, would you want to drink American mega-brews at a temperature you could taste them?

    Eating meat nearly raw is mostly an American custom

    Carpaccio, mett, kifto, sakuraniku (or any sashimi like basashi with meat), and dare I look at Wikipedia to find more? In any case, I wouldn't suggest destroying the flavor of this carefully aged meat with the application of heat. Besides, think of all the jokes a person could make with this coming from a steppe country. Mammoth tartare, etc... actually, there's no etc. That's all I've got. And given that preparation isn't actually mongol, meh.

  5. Re:Hunting for science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even better: to do so with stone age weapons.

    Stone-age mammoth hunting techniques tended to be group activities --- you needed many people with spears to wear a mammoth down from blood loss, or even drive it off a cliff. I doubt the type of folks who blow megabucks to compensate for their lacking manliness by murdering some poor big game critter from a distance would be interested in authentic re-creation of human cooperative social activities. Not that they wouldn't be interested in torturing a dying mammoth with some symbolic spear-thrusts after someone else has used modern technology to render the beast harmless and helpless.

  6. Survive? by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 5, Funny

    The upper torso and two legs, which were in the soil, were gnawed by prehistoric and modern predators and almost did not survive.

    "I do not think that word means what you think it means."