Russian mammoth remains give glimmer of hope for cloning

September 12, 2012|Reuters

* Siberian mammoth remains contain intact cell nuclei

* But chance of finding living cells, for cloning, small

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Scientists who found well
preserved woolly mammoth remains in a remote part of Russia hope
they might contain the necessary material to clone the long
extinct beast.

The Russian-led international team found the remains,
the Ust-Yansk area of the Yakutia region on Russia's Arctic

The next step will be to search for living cells among the
material which was preserved in the Siberian permafrost, said
the Russian scientist who led the expedition with members from
the United States, Canada, South Korea, Sweden and Great

multiply them to tens of thousands cells," said Semyon

However, media reports that the scientists were close to
making a "Jurassic Park"-style breakthrough by bringing the
giant mammal back to life after thousands of years of
extinction, were exaggerated.

"We are counting on our region's permafrost to have kept
out that the remains would need to have been at a stable
Fahrenheit) for any cells to remain alive.

Some media had reported that living cells had been
discovered, but Grigoryev said that had been due to a
translation error as the word "intact" had been translated from
English into Russian as "living".

necessary samples to make a living clone.

The Yana 2012 expedition found the remains last week at the
depth of 5-6 metres (16-20 feet) in a tunnel dug by locals
searching for rare and valuable mammoth bone.

A previous find, discovered in the same region two years
ancient bison and horse. Those finds lacked living cells.

To determine whether the cells are living, they will be
Biotech has done several animal clonings, including the world's
first commercial dog cloning.

Scientists have made several attempts to revive mammoths
using cells of remains since 1990s, none of them successful.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)