US biotechnology company Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences has a radical proposal: it wants to resurrect the woolly mammoth from extinction. In a preprint paper published on March 4, scientists at Colossal report making a significant step towards this objective. They genetically modified the DNA of mice to give them mammoth-like traits in their hair shape, colour and length.
By testing out their methods in a familiar laboratory animal, the researchers can make sure they work before applying them to Asian elephants – the closest living relatives of the mammoth.
De-extinction is an idea which, if successfully implemented, would allow us to bring back any species from the dead. It means that no animal could go truly extinct as long as we can obtain its DNA.
