Could the Woolly Mammoth be brought back to life? Does humanity yet really have the keys to de-extinction? Well, the answer is complicated, but maybe. The dream of bringing back the woolly mammoth has long been a dream and something spoken off. But for many, it just seems a pipe dream.
But just last year, the world headlines were once again grabbed as $15 in private funding has been made available to bring back mammoths to Siberia. One of the places that mammoths clung onto the longest was Wrangel Island and it remains a spectacular place to visit today.
The Plan To Produce A "Mammophant"
The company with the funding is called Colossal. They aim to place thousands of the long-lost mammoths back onto the Siberian tundra, returning them after thousands of years of extinction. Colossal says on its website:
"Colossal’s landmark de-extinction project will be the resurrection of the Woolly Mammoth - or more specifically a cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the Woolly Mammoth. It will walk like a Woolly Mammoth, look like one, sound like one, but most importantly it will be able to inhabit the same ecosystem previously abandoned by the Mammoth’s extinction."
Important to know how the process works. This will be an Asian elephant that will have its DNA edited to resemble that of a woolly mammoth. Fundamentally it will not actually be a woolly mammoth but an Asian elephant with mammoth characteristics (Asian elephants are the closest living relatives to the mammoths).
- George Church: One of The Leading Harvard University Genetics Professors On The Project
- "Mammophant": The Asian Elephant/Mammoth Hybrid That Would Look Like A Woolly Mammoth
The plan is to add the genes for mammoth trails like dense hair and thick fat so that it can survive and thrive in the cold tundra. The plan is to produce embryos of these mammoth-like elephants in a few years and ultimately establish an entire population of them.
It is thought that these mammoths and Asian Elephants shared a common ancestor around 6 million years ago.
- Extinct: They Mostly Went Extinct 10,000 Years Ago But Clung On In Places Until Around 1,700 BC
- Height: Largest 10 feet At The Should
- Weight: Heaviest 15 Tons
Challenges And How To Make A Mammophant
There are many challenges to this project and many researchers are deeply skeptical that Colossal will actually be able to do it. The Royal Institute has a great presentation of the difficulties and ethics of cloning a mammoth.
For years researchers have been learning how to reconstruct the genomes of extinct species using fragments of DNA retrieved from fossils. And it has become possible to pinpoint the genetic differences that separate mammoths from their Asian elephant cousins and how those differences resulted in differences in their bodies.
- Common Ancestor: Asian Elephants and Mammoths Have a Common Ancestor Around 6 Million Years Ago
Scientists have drawn up a list of the most important differences between the animals and have zeroed in on 60 genes that they believe are important to the distinctive traits of the mammoths (like high-domed skulls, fat, and hair).
- Mutations: Around 1.4 Million Genetic Mutations Separate Asian Elephants From Mammoths
To make these embryos they will need to remove the elephant DNA from the egg and replace it with mammoth-like DNA. In case they can't harvest eggs from an elephant, Plan B is to try to use ordinary elephant tissue and turn it into stem cells.
- Timeline: They Hope To Produce a Mammophant In 6 Years
And then the plan is to make an artificial mammoth uterus. This uterus would need to be large enough to house a fetus for around two years and would reach a weight of 200 pounds.
Re-Introducing Them Into Siberia
It is hoped that reviving the woolly mammoths could help the environment. The theory is that mammoths could aid in halting the warming of the tundra in Siberia and North America. Some think that the mammoths were ecosystem engineers who maintained grasslands and broke up mosses, provided fertilizer, and knocked down trees.
Today the tundra is mostly moss, but when the woolly mammoths grazed, it was mostly grassland. There are ongoing efforts to recreate this lost ecosystem in a preserve in Siberia called Pleistocene Park using imported bison and other species.
Currently, the plan is to introduce them to Siberia. But the ancient range of the woolly mammoth included Alaska and Northern Canada. The first challenge is to see if it is possible to make a mammophant, then perhaps they can think about Alaska as an option as well as Siberia.
Meanwhile if one would like to see their Asian elephant relatives, Vietnam has introduced their first ethical elephant tours.