{"id":3924094,"date":"2026-02-24T09:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/woolly-mammoth-proxy-could-one-day-roam-the-north-american-tundra\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T09:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:04:10","slug":"woolly-mammoth-proxy-could-one-day-roam-the-north-american-tundra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/woolly-mammoth-proxy-could-one-day-roam-the-north-american-tundra\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolly Mammoth \u2018Proxy\u2019 Could One Day Roam the North American Tundra"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The woolly mammoth may have gone extinct as recently as 4,000 years ago on\u00a0Wrangel Island\u00a0<\/a>near Alaska. However, scientists have been\u00a0working diligently for years<\/a>\u00a0on bringing them back.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Japanese researchers made a breakthrough using 28,000-year-old DNA\u00a0from Yuka,<\/a>\u00a0a perfectly preserved baby mammoth found on the\u00a0Yukaghir coastline\u00a0<\/a>of Siberia in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though she remained frozen for millennia, scientists could extract flowing blood from Yuka, a first in history.<\/p>\n

Yuka possibly died as a young mammoth, possibly around age six to eleven. Her body still featured thick and long strawberry blond shaggy hair. If scientists brought back a baby like Yuka,\u00a0a calf<\/a>\u00a0might look much like a living Snuffleupagus.<\/p>\n

See Yuka from the BBC below:<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZOFf1wyx91M<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Reawakening a Woolly Mammoth<\/h2>\n

Scientists in Japan implanted Yuka\u2019s cell nuclei into mouse egg cells. For 90-year old Japanese biologist\u00a0Akira Iritani<\/a>, his dream of resurrecting the woolly mammoth\u00a0seemed near.<\/a><\/p>\n

In five cases, the scientists observed a biological reaction indicating cell division could take place.<\/p>\n

Kei Miyamoto, a member of the team at Kindai University in western Japan,\u00a0told AFP:<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThis suggests that, despite the years that have passed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated,\u201d said Miyamoto.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil now many studies have focused on analyzing fossil DNA and not whether they still function,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, Miyamoto said cellular damage was \u201cprofound.\u201d Thus, a \u201cJurassic Park-style resurrection\u201d remained implausible.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe need new technology, we want to try various approaches,\u201d Miyamoto said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Therefore, scientists needed better cloning technology and samples. Perhaps then, they could insert mammoth DNA into eggs from their closest living relatives, the elephants. Until methods improved, they would continue with mouse embryos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ycbBu8Kwx00<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Reviving and Restoring Woolly Mammoths<\/h2>\n

Today, a leading organization in the \u201cde-extinction movement,\u201d called\u00a0Revive & Restore<\/a>, hopes to bring back the\u00a0woolly mammoth.\u00a0If not the actual species, they could bring back a \u201cproxy\u201d species<\/a> with similar traits and ecological functions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By editing the woolly mammoth\u2019s genes into the Asian elephant genome, the researchers could create \u201can elephant cousin\u201d more adapted to live in the far north.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe ultimate goal of Woolly Mammoth Revival is to bring back this extinct species so that healthy herds may one day re-populate vast tracts of tundra and boreal forest in Eurasia and North America. The intent is not to make perfect copies of extinct Woolly Mammoths but to focus on the mammoth adaptations needed for Asian elephants to thrive in the cold climate of the Arctic. The milestones along the way range from developing elephant tissue cultures to genome editing and most importantly, developing insights that help with Asian elephant conservation,\u201d the website states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Furthermore, as researchers are learning with\u00a0today\u2019s elephants,<\/a>\u00a0these large grazers are essential for maintaining and balancing their environments.<\/p>\n

In northern regions, there used to be a \u201cmammoth steppe.\u201d There in the tundra, grazing herds of antelope, deer, caribou, horses, bison, and woolly mammoths roamed. If these grazers came back, their activities could restore the grasslands, preserve the permafrost, and trap carbon. Consequently, the mammoths could help mitigate human-driven climate change.<\/p>\n

The project also hopes to revive extinct species like the passenger pigeon and revitalize the Amerian Chestnut tree.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0What became of the Siberian unicorns that once walked the Earth?<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We Are As Gods<\/h2>\n

A new documentary called\u00a0We Are As Gods\u00a0<\/em>focuses on\u00a0Stewart Brand,<\/a>\u00a082, the Stanford-educated author and co-founder of Revive & Restore.<\/p>\n

When asked why he wants to bring species back from extinction, Brand says it\u2019s a way to undo humans\u2019 environmental damage.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs it happens, all three of those projects make a lot of ecological sense. There is a gap in the ecosystems those creatures were in that has not been filled by anything else. If you bring them back, you not only increase biodiversity; you increase resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To Brand, science can partially empower people to reverse the harm they have done to the natural world.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut maybe the deeper thing is that we get caught up in our kind of tragic sense of human damage, not only to each other but to the natural world. Most of the damage was done unintentionally. The idea of undoing that damage is potentially very freeing,\u201d Brand says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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https:\/\/twitter.com\/stewartbrand\/status\/1367170240841326592?s=20<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

See more about the documentary, We Are As Gods<\/em>, below from ReasonTV:<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XMLSct2c2zM<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Related:\u00a0Giant mammoth traps uncovered outside of Mexico City with multiple skeletons inside<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Story of a Woolly Mammoth Named Lyuba<\/h2>\n

In May 2007, a Nenets reindeer herder named Yuri Khudi discovered Lyuba, a woolly mammoth calf on a sandbar on the Yuribey River in Siberia. A year later, a calf named Khroma was discovered 3,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

Nenets believe that mammoths are dangerous omens, creatures that wander the underworld. Worse, some Nenets even believe people who find a mammoth are marked for early death, according to\u00a0National Geographic.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Khudi and a friend contacted a local museum, and officials managed to save Khudi\u2019s body from near disaster. Unbeknownst to Khudi, his cousin sold the calf to a local shop where people began taking photos. Meanwhile, stray dogs gnawed part of her tail and right ear. Thankfully, the officials intervened and shipped the mammoth by helicopter to the Shemanovsky Museum in Salekhard, the regional capital.<\/p>\n

Later, they named the mammoth Lyuba after Khudi\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, she remained perfectly intact, aside from missing hair and toenails. After thousands of years, she retained her internal organs, stomach\u00a0still containing milk,<\/a>\u00a0bones, milk tusks, and other teeth. Even her eyelashes remained and she looked like she was sleeping.<\/p>\n

See more about Lyuba from National Geographic:<\/em><\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JYgsk53Lx8U<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Mysteriously Well-Preserved<\/h2>\n

Using carbon-14 dating, scientists in the Netherlands found that Lyuba died 40,000 years ago as a one-month-old.<\/p>\n

Notably, traces of sediment in her trunk suggested she died after sinking into the mud and suffocating. Then, scientists suspect her body was pickled and preserved by microbes, which may have discouraged scavengers.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s mysterious how her body remained preserved and pristine after thawing, possibly for\u00a0nearly a full year.<\/a>\u00a0If pickling had discouraged scavengers, why did the stray dogs attack the body?<\/p>\n

Researchers used CT scanners to create 3-D models of Lyuba and \u00a0Khroma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the bodies were too large to scan at a hospital, they required something larger. Thus, they used scanners designed to find flaws in vehicle transmissions at Ford Motor Co.\u2019s Nondestructive Evaluation Laboratory in Livonia, Michigan.<\/p>\n

(see video below)<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=spp7ZHIpQOM&t=1s<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Featured images: Screenshot via YouTube <\/a>with mammoth calf: Apotea<\/a>\u00a0via Wikimedia Commons,\u00a0<\/a>Creative Commons<\/a> Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

The woolly mammoth may have gone extinct as recently as 4,000 years ago on Wrangel Island near Alaska. However, scientists have been working diligently for years on bringing them back.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Japanese researchers made a breakthrough using 28,000-year-old DNA from Yuka, a perfectly preserved baby mammoth found on the Yukaghir coastline of Siberia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3924094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-code","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3924094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3924094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3924094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3924094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}