Sunday Times 2
Woolly mammoths could be brought back from extinction
Scientists discover blood and muscle tissue buried in an ice tomb for 10,000 years
Scientists in Siberia have found the first ever well-preserved sample of blood from a woolly mammoth, which could be used to recreate the extinct species. The 10,000-year-old blood was sealed inside ice beneath the carcass of a female mammoth. Preserved muscle tissue was also found from the creature, aged between 50 and 60 when she died, according to the Russian team who made the discovery on islands off the northern coast of Siberia.
A researcher from the Museum of Mammoths of the Institute of Applied Ecology at the North-Eastern Federal University working near a carcass of a female mammoth found on a remote island off the coast of Siberia
According to The Siberian Times, the blood will now be made available to South Korean scientists seeking to use mammoth DNA to bring creatures back to life. The find – said to be the first time mammoth blood has been discovered – comes amid a hotly contested debate over the morality of Jurassic Park-style projects to restore extinct creatures to the planet, with some scientists insisting it will be impossible to get exactly the same mammoths as once roamed Siberia.
Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University told The Siberian Times: ‘We were really surprised to find mammoth blood and muscle tissue.’ He hailed it as ‘the best preserved mammoth in the history of paleontology’.
‘It is the first time we managed to obtain mammoth blood. No-one has ever seen before how the mammoth’s blood flows.’ The mammoth was found in an ice tomb in the New Siberian Islands, or Novosibirsk Islands, and parts of the carcass are especially well preserved because they remained entirely frozen for 10,000 years.
‘The approximate age of this animal is about 10,000 years old,’ said Dr Grigoriev. ‘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.’ The hope now is that at least one living cell of the mammoth was preserved ‘although even with such well-preserved remains, this may not be the case.’
‘It is great luck that the blood preserved and we plan to study it carefully,” Dr Grigoriev continued.
‘For now our suspicion is that mammoth blood contains a kind of natural anti-freeze.’ Samples taken from the mammoth include ‘blood, blood vessels, glands, soft tissue, in a word – everything that we could. ‘Luckily we had taken with us on our expedition a special preservative agent for blood.’
The samples have been taken for study to Yakutsk, capital of the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, the largest region in the Russian Federation. The carcass weighing around one tonne has been moved to the Siberian mainland and is being kept in a ice storage.
The blood and other samples will then be available to South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk’s private bioengineering laboratory, which has confirmed it is working with other mammoth DNA samples in a bid to return the extinct Siberian mammoth to the planet.
The eventual plan is to plant an implanted egg into a live elephant for a 22-month pregnancy.
© Daily Mail, London
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