Woolly mammoth de-extinction

to put in context

Since successful cloning of Dolly the sheep
There are various proposals to Clone extinct Animals

On Top list next Dodo, Tasmanian, wolf is on place number one the Mammoth
in Russia they find very good preserve mammoth cadavers in permafrost region.
So good they can sample DNA sequence from this extinct animal.

Colossal Biosciences made here a breakthrough, toward creation mammoth embryo
That theoretically could carry by elephant calve.

But return extinct Animals ?
Biggest issue here can woolly Mammoth survive on today Earth ?
its Biotop was ice age tundra were their wool fur keep them warm.
and have we humans the right to reintroduction the Woolly Mammoth into Russia and Canada tundra?
and how they will interact with local ecology ?
 
I've heard differing ideas about the Mammoths.

One is that it's currently too hot for them, though that may mean they'd be up in Siberia/Alaska/northern Canada anyways.

The other is that it'd actually be good because they'd rip up the tundra and allow new/different plants to grow.
 
I guess the zoo will have to hand wash them in cold water.

But seriously ...

Playing in Google right now is finding interesting things.

Humans did not cause woolly mammoths to go extinct – climate change did | St John's College, University of Cambridge

www.joh.cam.ac.uk www.joh.cam.ac.uk


www.smithsonianmag.com

Can Bringing Back Mammoths Help Stop Climate Change?

Scientists say creating hybrids of the extinct beasts could fix the Arctic tundra and stop greenhouse gas emissions
www.smithsonianmag.com www.smithsonianmag.com


www.scienceworld.ca

What Do We Need to Know Before Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth? - Science World

Millions of years ago, majestic shaggy-haired animals with long tusks called woolly mammoths roamed the earth. Can de-extinction bring them back?
www.scienceworld.ca www.scienceworld.ca

From that last one,

Part of the grassland ecosystem once home to the woolly mammoth is what we know today as the Arctic tundra. Dr. George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard University believes that bringing back the woolly mammoth, which went extinct around 4,000 years ago, can restore the Mammoth Steppe ecosystem.

And that restoring this ecosystem could help slow the melting of permafrost in the Arctic, reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and stave off climate change.

Dr. Church, who is known as a pioneer of both genome sequencing and gene editing, was instrumental in developing technology to read and write ancient DNA, and has been working on this project to genetically-engineer the woolly mammoth for years.

His plans for de-extinction of the woolly mammoth involve combining parts of its genetic code with the Asian elephant—its closest living relative—and gestating the embryos in artificial wombs or a surrogate African elephant.

Using gene editing technology, CRISPR, resurrecting woolly mammoths to “walk the Arctic tundra again” is the first focus of his bioscience and genetics company, Colossal.
Click to expand...

Fun Fact:
The oldest DNA that’s ever been recovered is from a woolly mammoth’s tooth that is around 1.2 million years old!
Click to expand...
 
I see no sense about bothering on recovering extinct species other than a motivation for getting funds for research and experimental Biology. It's about what trying new techniques and developing new technology which will find its way into more practical applications (biomedicine). If that ends in a living mammoth (or mammothoid) that's just anecdotal.
 
Fun fact : to recreate a mammoth, you need Poland and the United States help. Why ? because of the Donalds... Donald Tusk and Donald Trump...
 
Actually, what they are trying to build is an Indian elephant with hair and without the huge tusks of the real mammoth (to avoid the greed of the hunters), a lot of money for nothing. The rich are more interested in eternal life than in the conquest of space, and smart guys take advantage of donations. There will be no Jurassic Park, at least not this time.
 
Fun Fact:
The oldest DNA that’s ever been recovered is from a woolly mammoth’s tooth that is around 1.2 million years old!
Click to expand...

If we are including fragment DNA, you can double that date. Thus far, the oldest recovered DNA are 2-to-2.4 million years old samples from the farthest north of the Greenland icesheet. These samples reveal a forested environment populated by reindeer and mastodons (shorter, wood browsing cousins of the grazing mammoths).

-- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05453-y
 
Dilandu said:
There actually a theory that megafauna could improve tundra biomes, by supporting highly productive tundra-steppe grasslands.
Click to expand...
The tundra already produces enough methane from thawing permafrost, it doesn't need gigantic herbivores producing more gas.
 
Justo Miranda said:
The tundra already produces enough methane from thawing permafrost, it doesn't need gigantic herbivores producing more gas.
Click to expand...
The woolies would never make it in CA, they would be prosecuted under the CA Non-Flatulence Act, they would have to be fitted with the Methane Non-Regurgitation/Remediation Encabulator, the dreaded MNRRE, it's worse than the acronym.
 
I imagine it is the smaller invasive animals that could cause the most harm in outcompeting the local wildlife.

Since there are no mammalian counterparts to T-Rex, one might just eat the occasional cow and even remain out of sight on the plains—if it could handle our oxygen levels.

Put it in New York City, and I see it’s ankle being smashed between car bumpers.

A tiny dinosaur on the other hand is the greater threat ecologically speaking.

I think the placental mammals of the North caused havoc with their marsupial counterparts in South America once the two continents joined.

I really don’t see a mammoth reintroduction as impactful as anything more than a curiosity.

The pythons turned loose in Florida? That’s your problem…not the cocaine hippos Escobar brought in to his home area.
 
Justo Miranda said:
The tundra already produces enough methane from thawing permafrost, it doesn't need gigantic herbivores producing more gas.
Click to expand...
Mammoths wandering the tundra would eat what vegetation they could find... and poop out fertilizer. They'd also mash up the top layer of soil simply by stomping around, and by digging around with their tusks. The net result *could* be increased plant growth and carbon intake.
 
Hydroman said:
The woolies would never make it in CA, they would be prosecuted under the CA Non-Flatulence Act, they would have to be fitted with the Methane Non-Regurgitation/Remediation Encabulator, the dreaded MNRRE, it's worse than the acronym.
Click to expand...
But the lawyer-eating T-Rex could solve the problem of over-taxing environmental laws.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkcWNnCBDps
 
Orionblamblam said:
Mammoths wandering the tundra would eat what vegetation they could find... and poop out fertilizer. They'd also mash up the top layer of soil simply by stomping around, and by digging around with their tusks. The net result *could* be increased plant growth and carbon intake.
Click to expand...
That's true, but in the Mamuth they're trying to clone, the genes that make fangs grow have been suppressed so as not to incite hunters' greed.
 
Justo Miranda said:
That's true, but in the Mamuth they're trying to clone, the genes that make fangs grow have been suppressed so as not to incite hunters' greed.
Click to expand...

Ah, so the real threat to 'de-extincting' Mammoths is actually illegal ivory hunting?

And the big issue (no pun intended) is not pachyderm flatulence after all? Good to know.
 
If genetic engineering is to the point where mammoths can be de-extincted, we're probably not far from the point where tusks can be lab-grown. And if you can grow them - or at least a substitute that the market for this dumbass crap can't distinguish - for less than the cost of poaching and black market transporting, then there'll be no market for poached versions.
 
Apophenia said:
Or just bob 'em and replace with stainless? Not much of a market for whittled steel tusks ...

Click to expand...
Stainless would be kinda heavy. However, a mix of carbon fiber and titanium might work. But I suspect you;d have some difficulty convincing the Mammoths to go along with that.

In any event, the best of all possible worlds is the one in which Mammoths and elephants and rhinos and whatnot don't need to worry about poachers. A world in which poachers need to worry about receiving a dose of leadicilin, or one in which retired Russia-Ukraine War drone pilots get bounties for bullseying poachers. Or one in which science has simply wiped out the market for such nonsense, either with vastly cheaper synthetics/bioengineered replacements or by finally educating idiots that powdered rhino horn ain't gonna make you a sexual Tyrannosaurus.
 
Apophenia said:
Ah, so the real threat to 'de-extincting' Mammoths is actually illegal ivory hunting?

And the big issue (no pun intended) is not pachyderm flatulence after all? Good to know.
Click to expand...
It is not my opinion, the data is taken from the intentions published by the scientist who has obtained the donation. What I think is that a tuskless Mamouth will be unable to stir a layer of snow to reach the grass, that's why I don't like this media spectacle.
 

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