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Climate change is something of a red herring here.
I feel the real question is whether we should try to de-extinct animal species that were hunted to extinction by humans.
Personally, I would be very happy to see a planet Earth with fewer humans and more Mammoths, Dodos, Great Auks, Thylacines, Steller's Sea Cows, Black Rhinos and dozens of others.

Maybe de-extinct dire wolves and sabre toothed tigers to cull the humans.
 
"bringing back these ancient creatures through genetic engineering could help reverse climate change". Wouldn't the methane emissions of huge herds of mammoths cancel out any benefits?
Someone's just managed to potty train some cows so maybe this could work with pointless mammoth hybrids? .. I mean give them snack rewards for breaking wind in a controlled area ..

 
It's completely insane and probably won't work at all
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Someone's just managed to potty train some cows so maybe this could work with pointless mammoth hybrids? .. I mean give them snack rewards for breaking wind in a controlled area ..

By Jove I think you’re on to something - get him on the phone now!
 
Someone's just managed to potty train some cows so maybe this could work with pointless mammoth hybrids? .. I mean give them snack rewards for breaking wind in a controlled area ..

That could work for me.
 
"bringing back these ancient creatures through genetic engineering could help reverse climate change". Wouldn't the methane emissions of huge herds of mammoths cancel out any benefits?
I thought we weren't to talk about politics.....
 
Couldn't they simply make hairy elephants? Put some highland cattle genes into the elephants, so they can handle the arctic temperatures.
 
People have knitted sweaters for seabirds. I suggest knitting large sweaters for elephants, so they can stay warm in Siberia.
That'll keep Tom Daley busy until the next Olympics.
 
There is certainly a well established argument (The Scientist, 2020) to say that the restoration of top predators can do a lot to restore habitats, as evidenced by the wolf experiment in Yellowstone Park. However, I am not sure if restoring mammoths, or some close chimera of them, would have the effect on their own.

The top predator lessons were about how the ecosystem underneath goes awry without the influence of the top predator. Mammoths are described as "keystone herbivores", that is they have the ability through their browsing and feeding habits to modify the environment. Whether that effect would be achieveable in any kind of resonable time frame, is anyone's guess.

The mammoth is an odd beast in more ways than one, but also insofar as nothing preys on it directly and so the population would be self managing, to a certain extent. But also, bear in mind that pachyderm herds tend to be matriarchal led through generations of inherited environmental knowledge. How would a hand reared chimera, of which little is known in reality in the wild fare under such circumstances?

While it might be a laudable idea, I think there are too many variables to say whether it ever have the desired effect.
 
There is certainly a well established argument (The Scientist, 2020) to say that the restoration of top predators can do a lot to restore habitats, as evidenced by the wolf experiment in Yellowstone Park. However, I am not sure if restoring mammoths, or some close chimera of them, would have the effect on their own.

The top predator lessons were about how the ecosystem underneath goes awry without the influence of the top predator. Mammoths are described as "keystone herbivores", that is they have the ability through their browsing and feeding habits to modify the environment. Whether that effect would be achieveable in any kind of resonable time frame, is anyone's guess.

The mammoth is an odd beast in more ways than one, but also insofar as nothing preys on it directly and so the population would be self managing, to a certain extent. But also, bear in mind that pachyderm herds tend to be matriarchal led through generations of inherited environmental knowledge. How would a hand reared chimera, of which little is known in reality in the wild fare under such circumstances?

While it might be a laudable idea, I think there are too many variables to say whether it ever have the desired effect.
I expect that the offspring would be given to elephants to mother, although this would not give them any wisdom about the physical environment.

But honestly, we have some forewarning of this. What could go wrong?
 
Analysis of prehistoric environmental DNA from the Yukon suggests mammoths and American horses survived thousands of years longer than previously believed. ...

These researchers' further analyses of materials from Yukon soil / permafrost has resulted in more details of the timeline to extinction. There's evidence some species survived up to circa 8,000 years later than previously believed - as late as circa 5,000 - 6,000 years ago.
Mammoth and Horse DNA Left in Freezer Rewrite Ice Age Extinctions

New research reveals the ancient animals survived some 8,000 years later than previously thought

Frozen soil samples collected around a decade ago are rewriting our understanding of iconic Ice Age animals like the woolly mammoth. The soil samples were pulled from Canada’s permafrost in the early 2010s, but no work on them had been published until recently. A new analysis of the DNA samples reveals that woolly mammoths, wild horses and steppe bison were around as recently as 5,000 years ago—some 8,000 years later than previously thought, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications.

Most DNA samples are taken from materials like bone or hair, but soils also contain also genetic residue that animals leave behind as they move through an environment, according to Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. The soil samples sat in a freezer untested for years until Tyler Murchie, an archaeologist specializing in ancient DNA at McMaster University, decided to reinvestigate them. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...reezer-rewrite-ice-age-extinctions-180979191/
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract from the newly published research study. The full research report is accessible at the link below.


Murchie, T.J., Monteath, A.J., Mahony, M.E. et al.
Collapse of the mammoth-steppe in central Yukon as revealed by ancient environmental DNA.
Nat Commun 12, 7120 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27439-6

Abstract
The temporal and spatial coarseness of megafaunal fossil records complicates attempts to to disentangle the relative impacts of climate change, ecosystem restructuring, and human activities associated with the Late Quaternary extinctions. Advances in the extraction and identification of ancient DNA that was shed into the environment and preserved for millennia in sediment now provides a way to augment discontinuous palaeontological assemblages. Here, we present a 30,000-year sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) record derived from loessal permafrost silts in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada. We observe a substantial turnover in ecosystem composition between 13,500 and 10,000 calendar years ago with the rise of woody shrubs and the disappearance of the mammoth-steppe (steppe-tundra) ecosystem. We also identify a lingering signal of Equus sp. (North American horse) and Mammuthus primigenius (woolly mammoth) at multiple sites persisting thousands of years after their supposed extinction from the fossil record.

SOURCE / FULL REPORT:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27439-6
 
Mammoths and Neanderthals.

Experts who unearthed a 200,000-year-old mammoth graveyard say it is "one of Britain's biggest Ice Age discoveries in recent years".

Archaeologists found the remains of five animals, including two adults, two juveniles, and an infant, at a quarry near Swindon.

The dig began after two keen fossil hunters spotted a Neanderthal hand axe. Officials from archaelogical organisation DigVentures said that what they went on to find was "exceptional".

The remains belong to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth.

Close to the mammoth remains, the team also found a number of stone tools made by Neanderthals.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-59702237
 
Mammoths and Neanderthals.

Experts who unearthed a 200,000-year-old mammoth graveyard say it is "one of Britain's biggest Ice Age discoveries in recent years".

Archaeologists found the remains of five animals, including two adults, two juveniles, and an infant, at a quarry near Swindon.

The dig began after two keen fossil hunters spotted a Neanderthal hand axe. Officials from archaelogical organisation DigVentures said that what they went on to find was "exceptional".

The remains belong to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth.

Close to the mammoth remains, the team also found a number of stone tools made by Neanderthals.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-59702237
There’s a programme about the find on BBC 1 tomorrow 8pm, presented by David Attenborough.
 
A mammoth tooth was discovered by a fishing crew dredging for scallops off the Massachusetts coast.
New England fishermen reel in 12,000-year-old woolly mammoth tooth

The crew of a New Hampshire fishing boat was dredging for scallops when they pulled up something unexpected: a 12,000-year-old woolly mammoth tooth.

The Portsmouth-based crew, known as the New England Fishmongers, said the 11-inch-long tooth was found off the coast of Newburyport, Mass. ...

Tim Rider, captain and co-owner of the New England Fishmongers, took the 7-pound item to the University of New Hampshire, where experts identified it.

Rider said he has decided to auction the tooth on eBay and donate the proceeds to World Central Kitchen, a charity working to provide hot meals to refugees from the violence in Ukraine. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...ly-mammoth-tooth-New-Hampshire/3621646947508/
 
An attempt to extract DNA from ancient Ipswich mammoth teeth. If successful, it will be used to breed new players for Ipswich Town.


Mammoth teeth dating from 200,000 years ago are to be tested in the hope DNA samples can be found to reveal more about the creatures.

Researchers from the Natural History Museum and Stockholm University plan to sample teeth from Ipswich Museum.

Dr Simon Jackson, from the Suffolk museum, said the oldest DNA samples found in Britain were from teeth dating from about 50,000 years ago.

Finding older DNA in the UK could have a "huge amount of potential", he said. "We are looking to see if DNA has been preserved in these mammoth teeth," Dr Jackson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-61761022
 
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