Back from the Dead!

Prehistoric woolly mammoth coming back to life? This is just so ‘Jurassic Park’, isn’t it? Woolly mammoths roamed the planet for hundreds of thousands of years before they vanished about 4,000 years ago. But now, they will be back from extinction.

Scientists took DNA from the hair of a woolly mammoth carcass in the snowy wastes of Siberia. They’re going to create a hybrid embryo. Then they will programme its key traits into an Asian elephant. If they succeed, it will bring the ancient beast back from extinction. But why bring back extinct species? Scientists want to bring mammoths back in the modern era for environmental and biological reasons. They want to increase biodiversity. It has declined in many areas as species die off. And if all goes as planned, many extinct species may have a chance to visit the modern world. So does this mean woolly mammoths will be roaming the Earth again in the years ahead?

Let’s hear what scientists say: “Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant/mammoth embryo. Actually, it will be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits. We’re not there yet, but it’ll happen one day.” So if you have dreams of riding a woolly mammoth in the next few years, you might want to change your plans. It’s not going to happen in the very near future and the creature will only be a mammoth/elephant hybrid that’s almost but not quite an actual mammoth… eh, close enough.