Hacker News Reader

Comment by kypro | Hacker News Reader

Not quite Jurassic Park, but I something I really hope to see in my life time is a Woolly mammoth.

Is this something that is actually thought to be possible in the near future? It sounds like in this case they needed a living female to do the clone. How would that work in the case of a Woolly Mammoth? Are elephants a close enough relative?

Yes! Revive and Restore (mentioned in the article) has also done some preliminary work on reviving mammoths, and the plan is to use Asian elephants as surrogate mothers.

This would be pretty different from the ferret project, as the mammoth DNA available isn't in good shape. It would require genetic engineering as well as cloning, and mostly consist of introducing mammoth DNA into Asian elephants a few genes at a time.

If I were to bet, I'd wager that the Thylacine will be the first large mammal brought back from true extinction. There exist specimens that were preserved in alcohol (which is not as destructive to DNA as formalin is) that are only a century or so old, and there is some political will behind it, too. I personally hope that it does come to pass.

But what would be a possible mother for it? Mammoths may be easier because (based on my very limited knowledge on the topic) elephants are not too distant from them, and with an incremental approach as other’s mentioned, it may be possible in the future.

Thylacine is pretty special as far as I know, with it being marsupial (though perhaps it is easier that way because a significant part of the development is outside the mother?)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com