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'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next (www.livescience.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Reverendender 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’m fairly certain they are working on the thylacine as well?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Different group, I think, and not as close to success. The thylacine has a better chance at long-term survival if we do bring it back, though—it isn't an ice age creature, and it was surviving despite competition from other creatures in a similar niche until humans started aggressively hunting it down.

[–] Reverendender 3 points 2 months ago

I think the mammoths have a really good shot actually. Siberia seems like it will be perfect for them