Technology really does make a LOT of things possible. Take this story for example.
A big break for prehistoric connoisseurs occurred when a well preserved bone marrow in a thigh bone of a Mammoth was recovered from a permafrost soil in Siberia last week.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported that Scientists from the Sakha Republic, a Federal Republic of Russia, and Japan’s Kinki University will team up together for a joint project to resurrect this giant mammal.
Kyodo News reported that according to the researchers, by infusing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant to that of the mammoth’s marrow cells, embryo’s of the mammoth DNA can be reproduced. The researchers would then plant the embryos into an elephant womb for delivery.
Mammoths are members of the Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths.
What is important is that the researchers should secure a nuclei with an undamaged gene in order for the nucleus transplantation to be successful. This technique is one of the most difficult task the researchers could undergo. Since the late 1990’s, researchers have been trying to find a nuclei with an undamaged mammoth gene.
The breakthrough find by the scientist in Siberia increases the chances of cloning the huge mammoth that became extinct about 10,000 years ago.
The report also noted that due to climate change the ground in Siberia has been thawed leading to the discovery of a number of frozen mammoths.
Photo credit: true-wildlife.blogspot.com
