And Just Where Would We Put Them?

Theoretically, it is possible to reclaim extinct beings, to spin evolution backwards. To recreate a mammoth all you need are a few live mammoth cells, since each and every cell contains complete genetic information.  Red-furred segments of mammoth flesh are not uncommon discoveries in Siberia, usually found by sled dogs that eagerly gnaw on frozen haunches.  But cells die if stored above minus 94º Fahrenheit, even for short periods.  Still, the possibility of finding live cells does exist.  Paleontologists in Ohio have isolated 11,000-year-old bacteria from the stomach of a mastodon, the oldest living organisms ever found.

To recreate a mammoth, destroy the nucleus in the ovum of an Asian elephant.  Then inject live mammoth-cell DNA into the altered ovum and implant the artificial zygote into the uterus of an Asian elephant.  If the 22-month pregnancy is successful, you can expect the birth of a 100% mammoth baby.

Another method is to take mammoth sperm (selected to ensure female offspring), inject it into an elephant’s egg and wait 22 months for your mammophant, a half elephant, half mammoth calf.  Then wait until the hybrid is sixteen or so, breed it with more female-selected sperm, and in 3 generations of mammophants, say sixty years, the resulting pachyderm will be 90% mammoth with 16-foot tusks.  The obvious obstacle to this method is that hardly any non-degraded frozen mammoth cells exist, let along viable sperm.  And even if some were found, would two species separated by millions of years of evolution even be capable of producing offspring?

So let’s go back to the method that just might be successful.  Let’s find live mammoth DNA, or perhaps just replicate some of it, and join it with the ovum of an Asian elephant.  The resulting offspring would be a cloned mammoth.

Then what?

To get more mammoths you have to artificially construct more zygotes, which need more live mammoth cells, which would result in clones of clones –  unless you find a lot of live mammoth DNA from many different individuals.  And for such a project you need elephants as surrogate moms.  Endangered Asian elephants.  Even with a whole herd of resurrected mammoths, inbreeding could make the population nonviable.  Would a hyper-disease be resurrected too?  Could it jump to elephants?

And where would we put our newly minted species?  In zoos?  On reservations? In those isolated pockets we call National Parks?  While we’re at it, shouldn’t we resurrect some cavemen, too?  In Northern Siberia scientists are already attempting to create a mammoth ecosystem called Pleistocene Park.  Imagine the tickets they could sell to watch Neanderthals, our human cousins, hunting.

And where do we stop?  Do we bring back Saber-toothed Cats, Dire wolves and Giant Short-faced Bears? Do we re-create their habitats?  Lower the temperature of the earth four degrees in this time of global warming?  Bring back the Ice Ages?