• Question: Are they still trying to clone a woolly mammoth

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Scientists were very fortunate to find a well preserved wooly mammoth from which they could extract DNA. In theory it may be possible to clone a mammoth from this DNA if they can find some actually living mammoth cells and the scientists are investigating this. Even if it is possible, questions remain over whether or not it is ethical to do this. Do you think we should?

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      I’m not sure we should – it probably wouldn’t be resistant to lots of the diseases we have around today so it might be a lot of effort, just for the mammoth to suffer a painful life and eventually die.

    • Photo: Phillip Manning

      Phillip Manning answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      There has been attempts by a group in Japan to genetically engineer a hybrid elephant and mammoth (from DNA recovered from a ‘sub-fossil’ sample). As far as I know this has not yet been successful, but the term ‘Elemut’ or ‘Mammophant’ have been used to describe such potential hybrids.

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