Woolly mammoth may live again thanks to DNA in elephants

More than 3,000 years after they became extinct, scientists have opened up the possibility of bringing woolly mammoths back from oblivion.

The Woolly Mammoth Image by Rob Pongsajapan / CC BY 2.0

Researchers have taken DNA from the extinct animal and put it into the living cells of elephants, raising hopes of the possibility of bringing back the woolly mammoth to life.

The London Independent reports that by replicating the genes that make elephants different from mammoths, they have brought the cells to life.

The mammoth’s hairiness, bigger ears and the fat beneath their skin is what makes them different to the elephant, but they now have successfully inserted their DNA into an elephant’s code.

Harvard professor of genetics, George Church used a new technique which allows scientists to make specific edits to DNA where they can copy and paste in certain pieces of code.

The last of the species of wolly mammoth lived on an island in the Arctic Ocean some 3,300 year ago, and it was from there that researchers took genes for the experiment.

Due to the fact that the remains of these animals are buried in permafrost, which keeps them preserved like a freezer, it was much easier to find the mammoth cells than is normally the case.

There is now even the talk of cloning, but scientists feel such a procedure would involved experimenting on too many live elephants while ethical questions would also have to be considered.