Fact-Checking a Frozen Mammoth: Scientific American - 0 views
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Melissa Menghini on 06 Aug 13Although cloning a mammoth would be fascinating, it is not needed nor is it necessarily possible. Scientists have hopes to clone a mammoth because of the recent frozen mammoth find in Russia. This mammoth appears to have blood that does not freeze, increasing hopes to find live cells. However, some researchers argue that finding a living cell in the body of the mammoth is not possible. They say that at most, they will find a cell with DNA that is intact enough to use to clone the creature. However, ancient DNA is almost always fragmented, and would therefore, not be able to be used in the cloning process. Doubts also circulate around the idea that the mammoth's blood was able to withstand -17 degrees Celsius without freezing. The sample found may have been under special conditions to allow the blood to remain unfrozen. With the trouble it would take to clone a mammoth, it is not worth it. Scientists can learn more about mammoths through the fossil record rather than from a cloned animal.