21st century woolly mammoth may be possible: scientists

After an experiment that brought frozen mice back to life, Japanese scientists are now testing the same methods on ancient woolly mammoth remains.

Researchers from the RIKEN Bioresource Centre in Ibaraki, Japan worked with sperm from frozen mice and mice organs in the experiment with mice.

Now, fully intact woolly mammoth bodies have been excavated from Siberian permafrost in order to perform the same procedures.

The researchers believe that it will be possible to bring back the woolly mammoth, as the mice were held for 15 years in a frozen state before their sperm was extracted.

The mammoth's sperm nuclei may be inserted into elephants, as elephants are the mammoth's closest living relative.

Although the Japanese scientists are confident that this set of experiments may bring back prehistoric animals, others are not so sure.

Scientists at the University of Tennessee say that storage temperatures would have to be much lower than the -20 C of the Japanese team's samples to preserve the ancient remains. The U.S. scientists also say there is no guarantee that the DNA would not be damaged.

The Japanese ministries of education and health and the Human Science Foundation of Japan will be funding RIKEN's research.

Photography: Atmospheric Physics Department, University of Toronto

Source: Discovery Channel Reports, August 16 edition