How to resurrect the mammoth

Woolly mammoths vanished from Earth 10,000 years ago, but scientists plan to bring the great beasts back to the Arctic tundra

Woolly mammoth and Asian elephant share 99.6% of DNA


1 Mammoth genomes extracted from specimens recovered from permafrost are compared with Asian elephant genomes to identify particular genes responsible for dense hair, thick
fat and other cold climate adaptions

Elephant cell

2 Relevant mammoth genes inserted into Asian elephant DNA using CRISPR* gene-editing technique, which acts as copy-and-paste tool for genetic code

3 Nucleus of elephant egg cell replaced with CRISPR hybrid nucleus containing mammoth DNA

Egg

Nucleus replaced

Egg divides, growing into embryo

4 To avoid use of elephant as surrogate, embryo is implanted into artificial womb for near two-year gestation period

5 New animal would be genetically-engineered mammoth-elephant hybrid, rather than exact copy of extinct woolly mammoth


*Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats 


Sources: Colossal, Revive & Restore
Pictures: Getty Images 
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