# Mammoth to be cloned **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 19, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165 "2011-01-19T03:25:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/1 "2011-01-19T03:25:08Z")
[No, really.](http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/scientists-trying-to-clone-resurrect-extinct-mammoth/?hpt=T2) > [@](#): > > Instead of Jurassic Park, try Pleistocene Park. > > A team of scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States hopes to clone a mammoth, a symbol of Earth’s ice age that ended 12,000 years ago, according to a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The researchers say they hope to produce a baby mammoth within six years. > > The scientists say they will extract DNA from a mammoth carcass that has been preserved in a Russian laboratory and insert it into the egg cells of an African elephant in hopes of producing a mammoth embryo. One foresees things might just possibly go wrong here and there. “Even now, as we survey the carnage, we must reflect that this project might well have gone flawlessly, had not generations of paleontologists held an unaccountably unexamined consensus that the mammoth resembled the elephant in vegetarian diet and lengthy breeding cycle.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/2 "2011-01-19T03:32:34Z")
[Uh oh.](http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/991120) ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/3 "2011-01-19T04:09:35Z")
[How to get your kids to like science!](http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2125#comic) ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/4 "2011-01-19T04:09:54Z")
About time. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/5 "2011-01-19T04:15:20Z")
So Mammoth is going to be in Humanity’s menu once more? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/6 "2011-01-19T12:14:12Z")
Teach your children well. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/7 "2011-01-19T12:39:38Z")
I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t a McMammoth already in the works. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/8 "2011-01-19T13:43:38Z")
“Sure, that’s how it starts - oohs, aahs. But later there’s running and screaming.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/9 "2011-01-19T15:39:27Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t a McMammoth already in the works. :dubious: That’s just like some people. Here we have a major breakthrough in mad science impending, and all you can think of is the most low, cheap, vulgar possibilities, **completely** overlooking the artistic potential of mammoth porn. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/10 "2011-01-19T15:42:33Z")
This can’t end well. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/11 "2011-01-19T15:43:37Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > [Uh oh.](http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/991120) Yes - Percy, the Man-eating Mammoth is what I first thought of. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/12 "2011-01-19T15:46:11Z")
The article says that the scientists involved plan to discuss, after the egg is created and before it is implanted “whether to display it (the hoped-for living mammoth) to the public”. How much discussion would that take? It seems impossible to me that something this amazing would not be exhibited. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/13 "2011-01-19T15:48:58Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > The article says that the scientists involved plan to discuss, after the egg is created and before it is implanted “whether to display it (the hoped-for living mammoth) to the public”. How much discussion would that take? It seems impossible to me that something this amazing would not be exhibited. Depends on if they’re planning to birth it and immediately vivisect it to figure out how it ticks. Hard to exhibit a bleeding specimen/almost-corpse, especially if it’s a furry baby one. People get all up in arms about those things. I told my husband about it, and he read the article and responded “I hope they find a BIG elephant momma.” ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/14 "2011-01-19T15:50:31Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > “Sure, that’s how it starts - oohs, aahs. But later there’s running and screaming.” I even heard his voice when I read that. You win! ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/15 "2011-01-19T16:05:59Z")
Assuming they actually manage to birth something, it won’t really be a mammoth. Higher animals are their behaviors as well as just their bodies. The creature may look like a mammoth but it will act like the elephant that is its surrogate mother and from which it will learn its behaviors. For those animals, like many fish, reptiles, and amphibians, which are independent right from hatching you could do something like this and get a product that actually replicates the ancient animal both in appearance and behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/16 "2011-01-19T17:51:38Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :dubious: That’s just like some people. Here we have a major breakthrough in mad science impending, and all you can think of is the most low, cheap, vulgar possibilities, **completely** overlooking the artistic potential of mammoth porn. Oh come on, that was a given with a professor from ‘Kinki University’ involved.. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/17 "2011-01-19T17:51:39Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > I told my husband about it, and he read the article and responded “I hope they find a BIG elephant momma.” One of the difficulties elephants have is traveling the last four feet through the birth canal with the umbilical cord severed. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/18 "2011-01-19T18:12:23Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > One of the difficulties elephants have is traveling the last four feet through the birth canal with the umbilical cord severed. I hate when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/19 "2011-01-19T18:13:39Z")
There are so few elephant breeding programs that are actually successful, also… makes you wonder where they are planning to find an elephant breeding program that won’t have a problem wasting valuable cycles doing trial & error IVF treatments on their breeding stock. In the United States I think there’s only two or three elephant breeding programs (that aren’t zoos) that have actually produced calves. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165/20 "2011-01-19T18:14:30Z")
Ooh! I hope they can figure out a way to shrink them down into lap dog sized mini mammoths! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammoth-to-be-cloned/568165.md?page=2)