Pleistocene Park
Posted August 1st, 2002
Ever since Michael Crichton wrote his book Jurassic Park and three movies were made from its story, people have been speculating whether it would be possible to breed
extinct creatures in a lab. However, the creatures in question are not merely limited to the dinosaurs in science fiction. One of the creatures that might be brought back only became
extinct 10,000 years ago and probably lived near where you do now: The Mammoth.
Mammoths (and their extinct cousins, mastodons) were large elephant-like creatures that lived in North America, Europe, and Asia during the Pleistocene era. They were
herbivores that had a diet similar to modern elephants, eating primarily grass, leaves, fruit, and other plants.
Mammoths first appeared about four million years ago and lived into the most recent ice age, when early humans were roaming Earth. Scientists aren't quite sure why
the animals became extinct, but they may have been victims of the climate change during the ice age or victims of over-hunting by primitive humans.
In 1994, the first carcass of a preserved mammoth was found buried in the ice in Siberia. Because the permafrost land stays frozen all year round, the mammoth had
not decayed much over the last 10,000 years. Since then, about one hundred mammoths have been discovered preserved in the Siberian ice.
Scientists estimate that at least 10 million preserved mammoths exist in the Siberian permafrost, but that area of the world is so sparsely populated that most of
the specimens will never be found.
In August 2002, the Times of London reported that Japanese scientists were planning on using tissue samples from a mammoth uncovered in 1994 to produce a clone of
the creature. This animal would then be displayed in an Ice Age wildlife park in Siberia. Already, the park features non-extinct ice age inhabitants, such as wild horses, musk ox, and
imported bison.
There are several proposed ways to bring the creature back from extinction. The obvious method would be to clone the specimen, however DNA extraction techniques are
not sophisticated enough to remove a genetic strand from the tissues of the extinct animals.
The other option is to remove sperm from the beast and use that to impregnate a female from the mammoth's closest living cousin - the Indian elephant. Granted, the
offspring would only be 1/2 mammoth, but scientists estimate that by repeating this procedure in the bloodline over the course of fifty years could yield a creature that is 88% mammoth.
Activity
Use the Internet to research mammoths. In your Science Journal, write a science fiction story about bringing mammoths back to life.
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