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A milestone for the controversial plan to bring mammoths back to Earth. Scientists have announced that they have been able to program sperm cells collected from Asian elephants. This can give the mammoth-elephant hybrid that is intended to be brought back with a thick fur coat and other characteristics like a mammoth. Standing up to 13 feet tall and weighing 8,000 kg, they belong to the elephant family with huge tusks and trunks.
They were dominant during the Pleistocene, which ended 11,000 years ago, on every continent except Australia and South America. But the most famous of these giants are the woolly mammoths found in Siberia and other arctic regions. Mammoths became characters in many novels and films including the Ice Age series. Mammoths later became extinct and were wiped out from the earth. Many reasons are given for their extinction, such as food shortages, climate change, and over-hunting by humans.
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One and a half million US dollars
The world’s last mammoths were found on Wrangel Island, which shares a coast with the Arctic Ocean in Russia. 4000 years ago, the mammoth era came to an end after they died out. A startup called Colossal is behind the plan to bring back the mammoths. The research has spent one and a half million US dollars. Asian elephants and mammoths shared a common ancestor.
African elephants do not fall into this category. In the meantime, an intact carcass of a mammoth was found in the frozen ice of Siberia and its genome was extracted. The aim of the scientists is to complete the research by making changes in this genome through CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.
Scientists argue that if the mammoth elephants created in this way are left in the Arctic region, they will contribute to combating climate change and maintaining the ecological balance. Once upon a time, grasslands were available in the Arctic region. These snow-covered grasslands were the main source of food for the mammoths. These protect the permafrost and store atmospheric carbon to reduce emissions. But with the disappearance of the mammoths, grasslands were destroyed and mosses and other things grew in their place.
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And massive criticism of the research
With the arrival of new mammoth elephants, grasslands are said to return. This is the process of rewilding in eco-engineering.
Despite this, there has been a lot of criticism against this research. Opponents argue that there are many endangered species on Earth and it is pointless to try to bring back a prehistoric species without trying to save them.
Representative image. Photo Credits; peterschreiber.media/ Shutterstock.com
Some of them ask that the number of Asian elephants has been reduced by a third and that the money for this research should not be used to prepare for their conservation. Some scientists have also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the research.
The environment in the Arctic is not the same as when the mammoths disappeared from the earth four thousand years ago. They warn that even if the mammoths come back in the lead state, it will not be of much use and they may die out because they cannot keep up with the arctic conditions.
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2024-03-16 11:32:45