How woolly mammoths could roam Earth again: Scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep believes ancient beast CAN be resurrected

• Sir Ian Wilmut said the best way to create a woolly mammoth is to reprogramme good quality cells extracted from frozen mammoths
• But he thinks cloning a mammoth presents many technical challenges and ethical dilemmas
• The Scottish scientist believes the best source of viable cells could come from the bodies of frozen mammoths discovered in the Siberian permafrost
• It could be 50 years before the advanced stem cell technology is available to create a woolly mammoth

By Sarah Griffiths

PUBLISHED: 05:45 EST, 31 July 2013 | UPDATED: 08:22 EST, 31 July 2013

Woolly mammoths could roam Earth again, according to one eminent scientist who believes frozen DNA from newly discovered frozen mammoths could be the key to the species’ resurrection.

Stem cell scientist Sir Ian Wilmut who is best known for cloning the world’s first mammal, Dolly the sheep, thinks modern techniques could be used to create a replica of the prehistoric animal.

While he believes the ancient animal could be re-introduced to the world – an idea reminiscent of Jurassic Park – there are ethical dilemmas.

Sir Ian said told The Guardian: ‘I’ve always been very sceptical about the whole idea, but it dawned on me that if you could clear the first hurdle of getting viable cells from mammoths, you might be able to do something useful and interesting.’

‘I think it should be done as long as we can provide great care for the animal. If there are reasonable prospects of them being healthy, we should do it. We can learn a lot about them.’

The source of viable mammoth cells could come from  a number of frozen bodies discovered in the Siberian permafrost in recent years.

The giant beasts lived in the late Pleistocene period, tens of thousands of years ago.

Their numbers were thought to have fallen across North America and on mainland Eurasia around 10,000 years ago, probably as a result of hunting by our ancestors as well as a changing climate.

Just last month,the most complete body of a woolly mammoth was recovered and captured the science community and the general public’s imagination about the possibility of seeing the giant creatures walk Russia’s plains again.

The baby mammoth, called Yuka, lived around 39,000 years ago and her body is currently on display in Yokohama, Japan, where visitors can see her incredibly preserved fur and tissue.

Samples from the little mammoth have been sent to laboratories in South Korea and Russian researchers hope to clone her.

Interestingly, Sir Ian told the newspaper he is not terribly optimistic about the scientist’s chances as there are many technical challenges.

Writing for academic publication The Conversation, Sir Ian said in order to clone a mammoth, hundreds of thousands of eggs from closely related species such as the Asian Elephant and plenty of healthy mammoth cells would be required to even stand a chance of achieving the scientific feat.

Mammoth cells are needed that still have their DNA intact, but they degenerate quickly as the snow and ice that has kept them preserved for so many years melts away.

Sir Ian wrote: ‘By the time you’ve got a bone sticking up in the sunshine, it’s effectively too late. You need to get it straight out of the deep freeze, as it were.’

The process of cloning also requires a female – in this case probably an Asian elephant – to provide eggs and carry a baby, which would be part created using a cloned embryo, but elephants themselves are rare.

Sir Ian believes it is ‘inappropriate’ to collect 500 eggs from the animals when they themselves are at risk of extinction.

He suggests that the best way to create a woolly mammoth is to re-programme good quality cells extracted from frozen mammoths using modern stem cell techniques.

The cells – if they exist – could be transformed into different types, including sperm and eggs, which could create a new mammoth life.

The technique has already been used to give birth to mice.

Sir Ian thinks it could be 50 years before the technology is developed enough to create a woolly mammoth, but at least the time frame could give scientists a chance to work out if the idea is a good one, in order to avoid a disastrous scenario reminiscent of Jurassic Park.

Scientists are reportedly concerned that a ‘modern’ mammoth would not be able to adapt to cold conditions, when its mother lived on hot, dry plains.

They also worry that the science must be developed enough to create friends for a mammoth very quickly in order to care for the animal’s welfare.

However, none of these concerns will matter if scientists cannot get good quality cells from bodies of frozen mammoths and while Sir Ian says the prospects of reintroducing the mammoth to the Earth is ‘fairly unlikely’ he thinks there is a chance.