Woolly mammoths have been extinct for over 10,000 years. But given the latest genetic sequencing efforts, scientists and engineers may be closer to resurrecting the ancient beast.

The starting point is blood. Researchers from the University of Manitoba have successfully reconstructed the hemoglobin of these ancient, massive creatures, and determined that their circulatory systems helped them survive in extremely cold conditions. Getting to that point was no small feat: it took more than nine years of study, and required comparing of the blood structure of current day elephants with DNA samples extracted from a permafrost-preserved Siberian mammoth. The next step involved synthesizing, or recreating, the globin genes active in the molecular structure of wooly mammoth blood.

Now that they’ve identified the genome and “resurrected” the blood, what are the chances we’ll be seeing a Wooly in the flesh – err – fur?  The New York Times has reported that bringing the legendary creature back would cost upwards of $10 million. But doing so would clearly be a mammoth task.

Image:  Tracy O/Wikipedia

Filed under: Biomedical, Chemical, e-News

Tags: Biomedical, Chemical