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Scientists aiming to bring back woolly mammoth create woolly mice (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 month ago by SquiffSquiff@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 53 points 1 month ago

Can I be nit-picky here for a second?

If you're genetically modifying an elephant for cold tolerance and fur growth, you're not "bring a mammoth back from extinction", you're creating a furry elephant. It may look somewhat like a mammoth, but genetically it's not a mammoth at all.

It's like saying you can genetically modify a homo-sapien to have a pronounced brow ridge and a hairier back and say that you've brought the neandertal back from extinction. No you haven't, you've just designed a human who looks different.

[-] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Well, the goal isn't to just create woolly mammoth-lile creatures by copying characteristics. The goal is to recreate the genome from what genome data we have into a living creature.

It's not like they are trying to create a sweded version, but take a creature that is already close and change the genes to match.

At least, that's how I understood it based on the article.

[-] yyprum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

I already have the hairy back, can I say I am half neanderthalensis? Better than homo sapiens seeing how things are going...

[-] pip@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago

And the most annoying part is that this is incredibly fcking useless. Wooly mammoths went extinct for a reason. Large animals are become less and less evolutionary preferred. Wooly mammoths are adjusted for the cold while our globe is warming.

Can we just use our fcking resources for things that matter?????

[-] FoolHen@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Not really, we humans killed most big land animals that we found as we expanded our territory, back when we were hunters. This happened in big "islands" like Australia and Madagascar, as well as all the small islands. There, large animals had lived in equilibrium for centuries, and their extinction matches some short time after humans arrived. An exception are the galapago islands, as they were discovered in the 19th century.

[-] pip@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago

Besides the fact that the hunting hypothesis is that; a hypothesis, there's a lot of other factors as to why it isn't a good idea. Mainly, ohh idk... The fact that they have had no place in nature in over tens of thousands of years? Even if we managed to create an artificial habitat and role in an ecosystem for them, they would be very vulnerable due to megafauna's increased minimum land requirements because of their size and in danger constantly due to climate change.

[-] stephen01king@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago

You're using the same logic my dad uses to rail against going to Mars. He says there is no worthwhile reason to go there when more pressing matters on earth are in abundance.

Just like you, he is missing the forest for the trees, angrily ignorant to the fact that the knowledge you gained from trying to achieve a seemingly worthless achievement is the actual value, not in the achievement itself.

The achievement is just a convenient goal to make the science more exciting to the general public so as to garner more financial support from both private and government sources. Each of the steps needed to gain that achievement may not have gained as much funding as they do now if they were presented separately from that final goal.

[-] pip@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 month ago

Dang I guess me and your father would rly vibe then because I feel the same about colonizing Mars

[-] scholar@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

When your house is on fire you don't start looking for package holidays to Pompeii, no matter how much you might learn. We have all the knowledge we need to avert the climate crisis, we just need action and resources dedicated to fixing it.

[-] Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

And next you’ll say that genetically-modified ears aren’t enough to make catgirls real either 😩

Can we let this one go? Not for science, not for accuracy, but for the prospect of having catgirls in our lifetimes, at least?

[-] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

That's not nit picky.

[-] Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago

Kind of a dick move to bring an animal from the Ice Age, back to experience global warming.

[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

Global warming 2 extinction boogaloo

[-] quoll@lemmy.sdf.org 32 points 1 month ago

mouse sized woolly mammoth would be pretty fucking cool.

imagine the sound when he toots his little trunk.

could store him in the fridge.

[-] Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

But how would he get in the fridge?

[-] Birch@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Open door, giraffe goes out, mammoth goes in, close door

[-] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Everything weird about this aside... Those mice are fucking adorable.

[-] proceduralnightshade@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago

They do look extremely cute though.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Is this how we get tribbles?

[-] takeheart@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

new Pokémon just dropped?

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 7 points 1 month ago

Got the woolly m, just need a few more letters.

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

I'd like to buy a vowel. "U?"

Damnit!

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

How many butts do the mice have?

[-] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Tribbles!

[-] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago

Ever since I was a kid I've always been hyped about the idea of them bringing back the mammoth. Been hearing about it my whole life...

But I have to ask... Why are we trying to, exactly? I mean, the planet's heating up. why are we trying to reintroduce a woolly mammoth? It's one thing if they're talking about using actual mammoth DNA and cloning it, but that article was talking about specifically just turning on some genes that cause fur and cold tolerance... What is the point of just making furry elephants at this point? Where are we sticking them, and why are we sticking them there? Is there some ecological niche that needs filling? Are we going to attempt to populate Antarctica (and hope it stays cold enough for that?) with hirsute pachyderms?

How about a different plan? As much as I have been excited woolly mammoths my entire life, let's try something a little different. Let's shrink the elephants we have, and introduce them into North America. Elephants the size of bison, roaming the continent. You can still make them cold tolerant, to handle winters, and give em some fur if you want. But the elephants we have are going extinct, and you're worrying about bringing back something else. How about we save what we have? Let them roam and graze Europe and North America, replacing the Aurochs and the bison. God knows we're not going to stop eating anything too cow like, so wild bison is basically right out. Let's let the elephant fill these niches, and save the species. They're too fucking smart to let die. Elephants got fucking religion, y'all. We cannot let them die.

[-] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago

Reintroducing mammoths in the arctic could potentially help reduce the climate change.

There is a scientist in Siberia who built the Pleistocene Park. An area where he reintroduced a lot of large herbivores and studied their impact. He's saying that boreal forest have a very low biodiversity compared to mammoth steppes. The steppes have way more animals, are stocking way more carbon in the soil and prevent methane leaks by keeping the permafrost frozen due to the low albedo of the biome.

The problem is that with the mammoths are indispensable to maintain the steppes. They are the only animal big enough to clear up trees, without them the forest is taking over and all the ecosystem of the steppes disappear.

So (according to this scientist), resurrecting the mammoth could revive a whole ecosystem, with a very rich biodiversity and that could have a give impact on the climate.

[-] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

So there is a good reason, then? I've googled it before, and the best answers I've gotten are basically "cause MAMMOTHS!"

If that's the case and there's a good reason, then hell yeah, do whatever we can to prevent climate collapse!

But also, give me small elephants, please? Especially if they can manage Chihuahua sized elephants. I would have so many! And I would make sure they always have a clear view of the moon goddess they worship

[-] Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Don’t let me harsh your vibe here, but are you sure about the moon thing? https://www.iflscience.com/the-internet-appears-to-believe-elephants-worship-the-moon-58666

I’m down with chihuahua-sized elephants, though, don’t get me wrong here.

[-] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago

I mean, I figured it was more meme-y than accurate, but good to know. Still, they're smart as fuck and mourn their dead, and seem to have rituals, sacred spaces, and generational knowledge. Shrink them suckers down and let me give a whole herd of petite pachyderms a patch of paradise, please

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

We need to answer the age old question - what did wooly mammoths taste like?

[-] NauticalNoodle@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 month ago

gotta start somewhere

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

I'd like to buy a vowel. "U!"

Damnit!

[-] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

"We were like this close" 🤏

this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025

243 points (98.4% liked)

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