'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next
'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next
The world they lived in is long gone along with the food they ate and the rest of their species. It seems almost cruel to bring them back.
Not that long gone—the last relict population on Wrangel Island only died out about 4000 years ago. That's (barely) within historic time. There are probably islands in the Canadian and Siberian Arctic that could still support them (and have no or few human inhabitants).
I see two big issues. First of all, not all knowledge among elephants is transmitted genetically, and I expect mammoths were the same. Who will the new ones learn from? They'll have to redevelop best practices for dealing with their environment from scratch.
Secondly, global warming. This seems like about the worst possible time to bring back an ice-age-adapted critter. We'd be better off transferring the effort spent on this project into de-extincting the thylacine, a more recent loss which doesn't have that specific issue.
It's not that long gone. There were still mammoths around when the pyramids were built. Plus there's still huge swaths of tundra and taiga that they could live on, with a lot of the same plants, even if it's quite a bit warmer.
Not advocating for restoring the mammoth, but this is a dangerous line of argument.
With climate change and ongoing mass extinctions, many current species are or will soon be in the same situation that re-introduced mammoths would be—and you could use the same argument to say that trying to preserve them is cruel so we should kill off any current species facing environmental stress.
They were here pretty recently, their food is still here. It was cruel that we extincted them.
Nah. It’s still the same place. They died out within the time frame of completely modern humans.
Well pumpkins and avocados still exists at least and apparently they were grazers.
It's worse when you consider the state of the world and the warming. They'd have about 20 sq\km of land capable of supporting them and they'd have to share it with those psychos, polar bears.
I've said this a million times before, but if we're playing gods anyway, can't we make them dog sized also?
I would totally get one or maybe two.
If they're like their cousins you don't want a pet that smart. Especially with a trunk. Good luck mammoth proofing your house.
Those are closer to horse-sized, but it's a good start.
Even dog sized they’d probably weigh like 200Kg. Mammoths be thicc
Pygmy mammoths would be adorable! Imagine them pulling sleds in the winter with jingle bells and stuff.
I hope they have put a substantial amount of thought into potential problems that could arise. (Not that it will actually be like JP)
I hope whatever species that comes after us doesn't bring us back
No! They did it! They blew it up!
And then the apes blew up their society too. How could this happen?
And then the birds took over and ruined their society.
And then the cows. And then...I don't know, is that a slug, maybe?
Noooo!
This is hilarious.
Future scientist can't make that mistake if we get rid of the future faster.
But why? We have no iceage anymore.
Obviously for the local petting zoo
Plus, mammoth burgers
#bringbackthesabretooth
There are about 2000 wild tiger left, I found this article from 2011 saying that they might be extinct in the wild by 2030.
So there might be 2000 ecological niches for smilodon to fill in 5 years. We better hurry then.
Pass....
"Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should"
"Life, uh, finds a way."
Hope they pay their IT guy well.
I remember reading about this in 5th grade. 25 fucking years ago. I'll believe it when I see it..
Everything outside of cities should be a nature reserve and we should clone extinct megafauna to put in zoos
Enjoy eating rocks, I guess?
Vertical farms to reduce wasteful agriculture practices
Maybe in 100 years, with how underfunded research in vertical farming is.
If we could just remove every parking lot and replace all major roads with trains, we would free up so much mammoth habitat.
Is fixating on the mammoths here first-world centrism? The article mentions 4 other species that have way better chances. Also, given how far we are from actual wild mammoths, that "it can solve climate change" argument is just wrong the way it's been presented.
It's mostly people-with-money-centric.
we have no idea what happens next
Make a variant with multiple butts
Or make is exactly the size on the picture, where the mammoth fits in a petri dish.
but with five butts
I have an idea: Mammoth burgers
Worked in the docudrama "the Flintstones"
Poachers. Poachers are next.
We bringing poachers to extinction?
I hope it's pet pygmy mamoths
"We have no idea what happens next."
Scientists: we know almost exactly what will happen.
So we're talking about de-extinction at a time when 70% of the planet's biodiversity has been lost in the last 50 years?
That just means we can kill them all now. We'll just bring em back later at a safer time. Problem sloved
Does anyone else feel like this is irresponsible? Like, I get it, humans have been destroying the ecosystems of endangered and extinct animals for awhile now. But the world is actively warming up. And even if this is successful, how do we create enough of them to survive and procreate without defects etc. And where the hell will they live? I just have some concerns.
Nearly every species ever has gone extinct. What you see around you are those few species that made it to the present. So, yes, on one hand it doesn’t matter. On the other hand, a new population of elephants isn’t going to affect the world and we can appreciate them.
Nope, seems cool to me.
It is likely that we humans or our ancestors were responsible for the extinction of most of the megafauna around the world, so we would only be undoing our own damage I guess.
We'd first have to undo all the damage we did to the rest of the Earth which, even if we wanted, we couldn't do.
As far as I understand, the whole "de-extinction" thing is just a huge flex on our part.
This is cool, but are they really the beast we need to bring back? Where will they stay?
Who's we?
They'll probably stay in zoos or preserves.
Yet another thing we have entire books and movie series about what will go wrong, and probably how. Yet somehow a way will be found to make it go wrong in exactly those ways.
Articles about deextinction often reference the Pyrenean Ibex that died 7 minutes after birth. Why has nobody tried that one again?
Welcome to 1000 years ago park! 🏞️ We got 🐘 🦥 but bigger!
Obligatory https://youtube.com/watch?v=_oNgyUAEv0Q
It's amazing that people are still wasting resources on this kinda stuff while the planet burns.
Not everyone can work specifically on the one thing you find most pressing. Some people are hairdressers, some people work in a supermarket, some people are learning about genetics, some people are actors.
The platform you're posting on isn't essential for saving the planet, should it still exist? The servers it uses create pollution.
I don't know, bringing back some of the species that this burning caused to go extinct - instead of the celebs mentioned in the article - would be nice.
To be fair, I think research on mammoth cloning started a good while ago and, if scientific research is anything like a start-up (spitballing here, I have no clue), doing a massive reorientation mid-process ends up costing more in the long term. At this point, it'd be easier to just finish figuring stuff out with mammoths then adjusting and applying the process on other entities/purposes.
Still MFW we're cloning woolly mammoths on a boiling planet. Lol. Lmao, even.
I choose to use my individual agency to focus on mammoth cloning and not climate change. Are you going to arrest me and force me to do the science you want?
Nothing bad will happen, as long as they spare no expense.
It's all fun and games until you're being chased down in your Jeep by a dodo.
The lesson there is: Spare no expense on your IT budget!
Your financial problems are not my concern!
And everyone knows not to mess with the raptor fences
Huh. I never realized the absolute irony of this statement until now.