Is a mammoth clone possible/ethical?

[valich]

No info on that, but I also recall something on that order?

Still, if we can sequence and match all the proteins from the tissues in the above, then why can't we use reverse translation to encode the entire DNA? Sequential cloning.

 

[Andre]

I read somewhere that some mini wooly mammoths, size-reduced because they were on an island off Alaska, survived until circa 8,000 years ago, long after their close cousins had died out on the mainland. Do we have any more information on that. I'll bet that that DNA is much fresher.

The most recents mammoths are from Wrangel Island, the youngest carbon date being 3720 years, which calibrates to ~4086 Calendar years BP (Before Present, "present" being 1950). So the actual age in 2006 is roughly 4142 years.

It was thought that this was also a dwarf species. However due to this expectation, the molar was misidentified as M4 while it was actually an M3, I seem to remember, with a considerable difference in size. Has been a big battle, no-one wants to be wrong.

The island dwarfing hypothesis is very thin. The opposite also happens, species increasing in size. Dale Guthrie has made a comprehensive study of several extinct Alaskan horses species to find out that they started to reduce is size considerably in the last millenia before extinction.

 

[valich]

The Assateague and Chincoteague ponies originally came from Spain but are thought to have become dwarfed ponies due to the poor diet that they are restricted to on the small island. Perhaps malnutrition is at the roots of the island dwarfing hypothesis?