​Resurrecting the Woolly Mammoth

It may seem too good to be true, but scientists assert that they will soon be able to resurrect extinct species, like the wooly mammoth. By extracting DNA from those specimens preserved naturally in the ice and permafrost, and cloning their genomes to create a real-life copy, scientists may be able to bring long extinct animals like the mammoth, and more recently extinct specimens like ibexes, dodo birds and passenger pigeons, back to life. However, there are a number of ethical implications in resurrecting a long extinct species, such as how will the specimens be maintained in light of a change environment and what are the potential effects on natural biodiversity?

Just this past March, scientists in Siberia announced that they have begun to extract DNA from the remains of a mammoth found there. The samples collected from the mammoth will be used to compile the mammoth’s genome, which the scientists hope will be entirely deciphered by 2017. However, the process of “resurrecting” the mammoth doesn’t begin from scratch. Scientists will use whatever DNA sequence they can extract from the mammoth remains to edit the genome of elephants to see if this evolutionary reversal process is even possible. The result will be a hybrid mammoth-elephant, whose DNA is mostly like an elephant, but also a little like a mammoth.

According to most extinction experts, de-extinction or resurrection could be an important tool in grappling with natural challenges. In some ecosystems, species like the white and black rhino play a central role, and as existing populations near extinction, DNA-editing technology could reengineer the rhino back into existence. In general, biodiversity, or the natural diversity of plants and animals on our planet, is on the decline due to a rapidly growing human population, and the ability to bring certain species back from extinction could, in some cases, preserve or delay the decay of ecosystems.

The drawbacks of cloning extinct animals are clear, but they don’t necessarily outweigh the benefits. On the one hand, there is the issue of meddling with nature and its natural processes. Most likely, the father of evolutionary theory Charles Darwin wouldn’t like the fact that we are messing with natural processes of animal survival in nature, namely the “survival of the fittest” and most successful populations. On the other hand, there is the question of how such animals, like a resurrected wholly mammoth, will be kept and if we currently support conditions, like climate and nutrition, for their survival.

It will be some years before we are able to visit a resurrected wholly mammoth at the zoo, but if we were to ask our Neanderthal and Ice Age ancestors what they thought of the move, they might tell us it’s a big mistake.