Recently, LiveScience reported a big news. A gold miner in Canada's Yukon Territory suddenly discovered the remains of an animal while digging in the permafrost. It looked a bit like a baby elephant, with a body length of about 1.4 meters, and most of the hair and skin were intact. .
Biologists confirmed that this was an ancient mammoth mummy, which was 30,000 years old and was about one month old when it died. Due to being frozen in permafrost, despite tens of thousands of years, the overall preservation is almost perfect. Biologists exclaimed: "This is the most perfect mammoth mummy found in North America."
This mammoth may have been eating grass when it was alive. It fell into a swamp and mire, causing to suffocate and to death. The mother next to it may have tried to save it, but she was unable to do anything. For the mammoth family, this is a tragedy, but modern scientists But it's like finding a treasure.
Because well-preserved mammoth remains like this are so rare.
The mammoth was one of the prehistoric giants, up to 5 meters in length and about 3 meters in height. It is also known as woolly mammoth . The body is covered with fine long hair, the skin is very thick, and it has a fat layer up to 9 cm thick. These characteristics allow it to withstand severe cold.
Mammoths were mainly active in the cold Pleistocene, about 1.8 million BC to 10,000 BC. As described in the movie " Ice Age ", the mammoths were active during that period. , is an indispensable protagonist.
Mammoths in real life once lived widely in northern Eurasia. About 10,000 years ago, or due to climate reasons, they began to gradually disappear until they became extinct about 5,000 years ago.
More than 80% of all mammoth remains discovered so far have been found in the permafrost zones of eastern Siberia .
In 2007, the remains of a mammoth calf were discovered in Siberia. They were older than the remains discovered in Canada this time, about 42,000 years old.
Speaking of this, some friends may ask, what are the uses of these mammoth remains?
has many scientific research values, the most interesting of which is the mammoth resurrection plan.
In 2011, a Japanese scientific research team announced a mammoth resurrection plan . The main method was to use cloning technology to use the discovered frozen cells of mammoths as materials to cultivate mammoths. What is
cloning technology?
clone is the transliteration of English Clone, which can be understood as copy or copy.
cloning technology, simply put, is to extract intact DNA from tissues and organs of an organism, then rely on cell nuclear transfer technology to assemble new egg cells, and then develop into embryos in a suitable environment until new life The birth of.
Let’s look at an example. In 1996, Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, was born, causing an uproar in the world. How did
researchers do it? Here are four key points.
1. First clear the genetic material of a sheep egg cell and turn it into an empty shell.
2. The genetic material was taken out from a 6-year-old ewe and injected into the empty shell of the egg cell to obtain an egg cell that contains new genetic material but has not been fertilized.
3. Egg cells divide and multiply to form embryos in a suitable environment.
4. Then the egg cells were implanted into the uterus of another ewe, and Dolly was finally created.
Of course, the actual technical process is very complicated, we only have a rough understanding.
From the above steps, we can see that in cloning technology, the most critical thing is to obtain genetic material.
Dolly's genetic genes come from a living 6-year-old ewe, so what about extinct animals like mammoths?
How difficult is it to find woolly mammoth DNA?
DNA is an essential biological macromolecule that guides the development of organisms and carries the genetic information of organisms.
After an organism dies, the chromosomes of DNA break into pieces and become shorter over time.When DNA strands become too short, the genetic information contained within them no longer exists.
However, in some special environments, such as permafrost, stable low temperatures can slow down the process of DNA fragmentation.
This makes it possible to find the complete DNA of mammoths.
Because mammoth remains are usually preserved in permafrost.
In 2011, a Japanese research team announced the launch of a mammoth cloning plan, but the subsequent development did not seem to be smooth. Facts have proved that it is very difficult to decipher the entire genetic structure of the mammoth .
Most of the DNA obtained is fragmented and has little usability.
Scientists are looking for better quality mammoth tissue. So this time mammoth remains were discovered in Canada's Yukon, will they be a better sample?
Although the remains of the baby elephant are well preserved, 30,000 years is not a short period of time in terms of time. The remains of mammoths that were frozen for 28,000 years were previously discovered in Russia, but no breakthrough was made.
Maybe there will be new discoveries this time.
But another important issue now is that cloning mammoths has become a controversial project in itself.
Scientists who support the controversial cloning
believe that mammoths are fascinating animals. If a living mammoth can be created, it will not only improve the understanding of this animal and study its history and causes of extinction, but also this Technology can also be used to save endangered animals, which can be said to be a breakthrough.
Opponents believe that the chance of successfully cloning a mammoth is very slim, which seems to be a waste of money and time, and even if it can be cloned, today's earth environment is very different, and mammoths may not survive.
In addition, cloning can also lead to genetic defects. If used on endangered animals, it will cause the genetic diversity of and to decrease, eventually leading to their extinction.
Summary
In any case, for scientists, the value of the mammoth remains found in Yukon, Canada cannot be measured in terms of money.
In the eyes of scientists, the remains of this mammoth are a window into the environment and ecology tens of thousands of years ago. They can extract DNA from mammoths, study their evolution, and perhaps make other new discoveries.
In short, science itself progresses through research, and we cannot abandon food because of choking, nor can we be careless.
