Wooly Mammoth With Blood: Can it Be Cloned?
Scientists recently discovered a frozen wooly mammoth with blood still in its carcass.
The Russians who stumbled upon the female prehistoric creature said "blood flowed out" of the creature while they were conducting experiments on it, and now have hopes of cloning it, reports UPI.
The discovery was made earlier this month by an expedition set in motion by the Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, North-Eastern Federal University, and the Russian Geographical Society in Novosibirsk archipelago in Siberia.
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The animal is estimated to have died around to 10,000 to 15,000 years ago and was most likely between 50 and 60 when it died.
"The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've found out of the body, have a natural red color of fresh meat," Grigoryev said in a news release.
The bottom half of the mammoth was still frozen in ice, and the upper portion must have been consumed by predators.
"The blood is very dark; it was found in ice cavities bellow the belly and when we broke these cavities with a poll pick, the blood came running out," said Grigoryev according to UPI. The researchers claim the blood was liquid despite temperatures of 14-20 degrees Fahrenheit and further claim "the blood of mammoths had some cryoprotective properties."
"This is the most astonishing case in my entire life. How was it possible for it to remain in liquid form? And the muscle tissue is also red, the color of fresh meat," he continued.
The scientist will not reveal where the specimen is for fear of it being robbed, but he is hopeful on cloning the mammoth. North Eastern University partnered with the man known to have cloned the first dog in 2005, Hwang Woo-Suk.
"This find gives us a really good chance of finding live cells, which can help us implement this project to clone a mammoth," Grigoryev told Yahoo! News.
