Scientists have announced that they are close to cloning woolly mammoths. This could take place in as little as 4 years. While we won’t exactly get Jurassic Park, we may have a real-world Ice Age Park.
The cloning process starts by taking a cell nuclei from the skin or muscle tissue of a 5000+ year-old mammoth, inserting it into a cell egg of an African elephant, and then using it as a surrogate mother for the 600-day gestation period. They say that they could start the gestation within two years. That means that within four, we’ll have mammoths roaming around.
While I’m all for reviving extinct species, woolly mammoths could impact our environment in strange ways that we haven’t foreseen. At least they shouldn’t eat us like T-Rexes, right?
[via Telegraph]