Are Scientists About to Clone a Mammoth? | Unveiled

Are Scientists About to Clone a Mammoth?

From the dinosaurs to the dodo, Earth has been home to all manner of creatures that are no longer here. In fact, of all the organisms and animals to ever live on this planet, more than 99% of them are now extinct and will never be seen again. Except, perhaps that last part isn't quite true, anymore! In recent decades, scientists have gotten better and better at cloning stuff… to the point where some are now trying to use cloning technology to bring back creatures that have long since died off.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; are scientists about to clone a mammoth?

Cloning is a supremely difficult and delicate business, but the basics are actually quite simple to understand. In order to be a clone of something else, an organism has to have the exact same genetic code as another organism. This situation occurs both naturally (in the environment) and now artificially (in the lab). Plants and bacteria are known to asexually reproduce and create clones of themselves, but really humans and other mammals can do something close to this, too. Identical twins, for example, are nearly perfect clones of each other’s DNA. Cloning in a lab, however, happens by removing a somatic cell from an animal, which is anything that isn’t sperm or eggs, and implanting it into an egg cell that has had its DNA removed. That egg is then implanted into a female… and the offspring that grows is a clone. Cloning might seem futuristic, but it’s already been done in today’s world on a variety of animals such as sheep, goats, mice, horses, rabbits, and even dogs. Now, however, scientists are looking back in time, to the giants of the ice age, woolly mammoths. It’s a spectacular step to take, but it’s no longer purely science fiction.

First off, how did we get to this point? Surprisingly, this isn’t the first extinct species that we’ve attempted to clone. Scientists previously tried to revive the Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo, a type of wild goat that went extinct in the year 2000. The cloning attempts in this case proved disappointing, as all but one of the would-be resurrected creatures died before they were born. And the one that was born only lasted for a few minutes before succumbing to a lung defect, and passing away. But, despite the lack of success, there had been method to the attempt, with researchers choosing the ibex as a cloning candidate for a couple of reasons; 1) science understands the reproductive biology of goats very well, and 2) it only takes five months for a baby to be born, a relatively short time. The apparent clamour for another sustained cloning experiment has never really died down, though, and so scientists are already moving on from the Pyrenean ibex to the woolly mammoth - an even bigger challenge in every aspect.

The woolly mammoth was a creature that survived on Earth for millions of years, but went extinct around 4,000 years ago due to climate change and perhaps through hunting. The interest in cloning a mammoth has been around for decades. For one, humans have an apparent fascination with ultra-large animals that used to walk the earth, especially ones that our human ancestors shared the land with. Mammoths are main features in many museums and films, and we’re all familiar with them. But there are reasons beyond just this bizarre sentimentality why clone scientists should have mammoths in their sights.

For example, on a planetary scale, the timing works well. With Earth’s temperature rising, more ice is melting, which means that in some regions there are long-frozen mammoth remains just beneath the surface that are becoming accessible. Until recently, cloning a mammoth might’ve seemed impossible because no one could get their hands on viable cells. In 2019, however, Japanese scientists made a breakthrough by recovering mammoth remains that did have cells that weren’t completely dead. Those scientists still couldn’t quite convert their find into a successful cloning procedure, but the belief is that more and better-preserved remains will one day soon be uncovered.

Meanwhile, there are other avenues of research, too. A company called Colossal, formed of scientists and entrepreneurs, for example, is reportedly working on a different route to resurrection. Instead of using a living cell, they want to use gene editing technology to manually recreate the woolly mammoth. And it’s thought that, as sci-fi as it sounds, this is theoretically possible… as a different team of scientists has already shown that sequencing the complete genome of the mammoth can be done, having done so back in 2015. Since Asian Elephants share a common ancestor with mammoths, and share 99% of their DNA, the general plan with Colossal is to genetically edit an elephant egg. And to replace some of it with mammoth DNA, by adding genes for things like hair, thick fat, and various other attributes. Theoretically, that egg could then be implanted inside a female elephant and left to mature until a mammoth is born.

But, has Colossal (or any other group) managed to do it yet? Not quite, because there are problems. Extracting and implanting eggs from and into elephants is still held to be extremely difficult. And both methods - cell recovery and gene editing - require us to do that. What’s more, no one has ever cloned anything as big as a mammoth and, generally, the bigger the animal the riskier the pregnancy and procedure. Elephants have gestational periods of almost two years, as well, which leaves a lot of time for something to go wrong. And all of that’s before we even consider that a woolly mammoth is still a different species altogether from an elephant, and no one can be sure how an elephant would handle carrying a mammoth baby.

The next step after the initial clone is difficult to envision, too. Completely reviving an entire extinct species is extremely challenging beyond even the initial conception, because we’d still need at least two members of the opposite sex (of that cloned species) to have another child. You need many, many more to have a chance of genetic diversity and a healthy population. And scientists can’t just alter chromosomes to create male or female, as that technology doesn’t quite exist yet.

Nonetheless, these issues aren’t stopping the Harvard Geneticist George Church, leader of Colossal, as his team has reportedly already edited multiple mammoth substitutions into elephant DNA. Instead of using a real elephant to birth the mammoth, Church also reportedly wants to build and use an artificial mammoth womb to grow the fetus in a lab. This should sidestep many of the main problems, and it isn’t completely new technology, either. Researchers in 2017 created an artificial uterus that could grow a fetal lamb for four weeks, for example… but, again, a mammoth is a different prospect, and one that weighs much more and requires far more time. Having reportedly raised more than $15 million in funding, however, Colossal is currently in the process of building the equipment to make this a reality.

But finally, researchers remain in disagreement about one thing: whether that new reality is good or bad. On the one hand, we would be re-giving the gift of life to a species that no longer exists... which sounds reasonably noble. And then Colossal (and others) also argue for the animal’s environmental benefit, suggesting that woolly mammoths could one day impact frozen tundra again, and return it to grasslands. When the mammoths were alive, they were essential to shovelling away layers of snow where they walked, meaning that air could reach the soil beneath and fresh environments could grow.

Other scientists aren’t so sure about those claims, however, and argue that a reintroduction of mammoths could actually upset the established ecosystems on Earth. Not to mention the now warmer climates, which could be unsuitable for these ancient animals, themselves. On top of that, there are so many, deep-rooted ethical considerations… including that mammoths are known to have been extremely social creatures, much like modern day elephants are. But a mammoth baby born to an elephant mother might not be accepted by the group and may therefore be condemned to a life of isolation. And lastly, others argue that the funds and time needed for this endeavour would really be better spent trying to keep today’s endangered species from going extinct in the first place… instead of attempting to revive long dead ones.

Ultimately, there are now a number of groups and companies, pursuing a variety of techniques, and they’re seemingly determined to recreate the woolly mammoth. We are, then, closer than ever to a time and reality where these magnificent creatures might walk among us again. But perhaps don’t expect safari parks full of them anytime soon. There are still so many major breakthroughs to be made. And the big question remains over whether reviving the mammoth is really the right thing to do?