Recently, a blockbuster news was reported on LiveScience. A gold miner in the Yukon region of Canada, while excavating permafrost, suddenly found the remains of an animal, which looked a bit like a small elephant, with a body length of about 1.4 meters, and most of the hair and skin were intact.
Biologists have confirmed that it is an old mammoth mummy, 30,000 years old, and about a month old when it died. Frozen in permafrost, the overall preservation is nearly perfect after tens of thousands of years, and biologists marvel: "This is the most perfect mammoth mummy found in North America."
The mammoth may have been grazing and died of suffocation due to falling into a swamp quagmire, and the mother next to it may have tried to save it, but there is nothing she can do, which is a tragedy for the mammoth family, but modern scientists have been very precious.
Because the remains of a mammoth like this are really rare.
The mammoth is one of the prehistoric behemoths, reaching up to 5 meters in length and about 3 meters in height, also known as the mammoth. Covered with fine long hair, the skin is very thick, with a fat layer of up to 9 cm thick, these characteristics allow it to withstand the cold.
Mammoths were mainly active in the cold Pleistocene, between about 1.8 million and 10,000 BC, as described in the movie Ice Age, mammoths were indispensable protagonists during that period.
The real-life mammoth, which once lived widely in northern Eurasia, began to disappear about 10,000 years ago, or due to climatic reasons, until it became extinct about 5,000 years ago.
Of all mammoth remains found to date, more than 80 percent were found in the permafrost of eastern Siberia.
In 2007, the remains of a baby mammoth elephant were found in Siberia, which is older than the remains found in Canada this time, about 42,000 years old.
Speaking of which, some friends may ask, what is the use of these mammoth remains?
There is a lot of scientific value in research, the most interesting of which is the mammoth's resurrection plan.
In 2011, a Japanese research team announced a mammoth resurrection plan, the main method is to use cloning technology, using the discovered mammoth frozen cells as material to breed mammoths.
What is cloning technology?
Cloning is a transliteration of Clone in English, which can be understood as reproduction and copying.
Cloning technology, in short, is to extract complete DNA from the tissues and organs of the organism that has not deteriorated and damaged, and then rely on cell nuclear transfer technology to assemble new egg cells, and then develop into embryos in a suitable environment until the birth of new life.
Let's look at an example. In 1996, the world's first cloned sheep Dolly was born, and world public opinion was in an uproar.
What did the researchers do? Four main points are summarized here.
1. First empty the genetic material of a sheep egg cell and turn it into an empty shell.
2. Take the genetic material from a 6-year-old ewe and inject it into the empty shell of the egg cells to obtain an egg cell that contains new genetic material but has not been spermified.
3. Egg cells divide and proliferate in a suitable environment to form an embryo.
4. The egg cells were then implanted in the womb of another ewe, and dolly was finally created.
Of course, the actual technical process is very complicated, and we just need to take a rough look.
From the above steps, we can see that in cloning technology, the most critical is to obtain genetic material.
Dolly's genes come from a living 6-year-old ewe, so what about an extinct animal like a mammoth?
How hard is it to find the DNA of a mammoth?
DNA is an essential biological macromolecule that guides the development of living organisms, carrying the genetic information of living organisms.
After an organism dies, the DNA chromosomes split into pieces and become shorter over time. When the DNA strand becomes too short, the genetic information contained in it ceases to exist.
However, in some special environments, such as permafrost, stable low temperatures can delay the process of DNA fragmentation.
This makes it possible to find the mammoth's intact DNA.
Because the remains of mammoths are usually kept in an environment of permafrost.
In 2011, a Japanese research team announced the launch of a program to clone mammoths, but the subsequent development did not seem to be smooth, and it proved very difficult to decipher the entire genetic structure of mammoths.
Most of the DNA obtained is fragmented and not very usable.
Scientists are looking for better quality mammoth tissue. So the discovery of mammoth remains in canada's Yukon region, would it be a better sample?
Although the remains of the baby elephant are intact, in terms of time, 30,000 years is not a short time, and the mammoth remains that have been frozen for 28,000 years have been found in Russia, but no breakthrough has been made.
Maybe there will be new discoveries this time.
Another important issue now, though, is that the mammoth clone itself has become a controversial project.
Controversial clones
Supporting scientists believe that mammoths are attractive animals, and if you can create a live mammoth, you can not only improve the understanding of this animal, study its history and the causes of extinction, but also this technology can also be used to save endangered animals, which can be said to be a breakthrough.
Opponents argue that the chances of successfully cloning mammoths are slim, that they seem to be a waste of money and time, and that even if they could, the environment of today's Earth is so different that mammoths may not survive.
In addition, cloning can also lead to defects in genes. If used in endangered animals, it will lead to a decline in genetic diversity and eventually lead to extinction.
summary
In any case, for scientists, the value of the mammoth remains found in Canada's Yukon cannot be measured in money.
In the eyes of scientists, the mammoth's remains are a window into the environment and ecology tens of thousands of years ago. They can extract DNA from mammoths, study their evolution, and perhaps make other new discoveries.
In short, science itself is progressing in research, and it can neither be wasted because of choking, nor can it be careless.