Mammoth discovery for science - Sydney Morning Herald

Return to video Video settings Please Log in to update your video settings Video will begin in 5 seconds. Return to video Video settings Please Log in to update your video settings Mammoth discovery for science Russian researchers extract liquid blood from the carcass of a woolly mammoth, fuelling hopes of cloning the prehistoric animal. Autoplay OnOff Video feedback Video settings Russian scientists claim they have extracted blood from a woolly mammoth buried in Siberia, a discovery they hope will aid their attempt to revive the extinct species. The team claim this is the first time blood has been recovered from a carcass of the ancient mammal, adding to the tissue and muscle samples previously salvaged, but some scientists remain sceptical of the finding. The team, led by Semyon Grigoryev from North-Eastern Federal University, hopes the blood and tissue samples will contain intact cells with viable DNA, which could be used to clone the species. Discoveries: Tusks found in Siberia by Bernard Buigues in 1999. Photo: AP The group is one of several teams attempting to revive extinct species using cloning or genetic engineering techniques. In March, a team led by University of NSW paleontologist Mike Archer announced it had grown three-day-old embryos of an extinct species of native amphibian, the gastric-brooding frog. The Russian team found the mammoth, aged between 50 and 60 when she died, on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean last month. The species is believed to have died out 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. ''When we broke the ice beneath her stomach, the blood flowed out from there, it was very dark,'' Professor Grigoryev told Discovery News. But Professor Archer said even if the liquid extracted from the specimen was confirmed to be blood, it was a long shot to expect there to be usable DNA. As the carcass was found close to the surface it would likely have gone through periods of thawing and refreezing, allowing bacteria to contaminate the blood and destroy genetic material. An illustration of a woolly mammoth. Photo: Getty Images ''The only real hope for getting viable DNA is to find a specimen that has been buried very deep and hasn't thawed.'' The tissue samples will be sent to a private South Korean biotechnology company, run by disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk.Mr Hwang is infamous for claiming to have derived stem cells from cloned human embryos based on fraudulent data. If viable mammoth DNA can be recovered, the scientists may attempt to clone the species using the same technique used to grow gastric-brooding frog embryos. The idea is to implant a mammoth DNA egg into a surrogate elephant. via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGKGywkDC7g30N7sDE_U0w0XwjSZw&url=http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tusk-tusk--its-a-woolly-tale-of-mammoth-blood-20130530-2nep2.html

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2954071