Is This Baby Mammoth the Best Preserved Specimen Yet?

[Evo]

Since previous articles on Mammoths were posted here due to the DNA/cloning issue I thought I'd put it here (see even mentors aren't always sure where to put things).

I thought this was very cool. This might give us a good DNA sample.

Baby mammoth discovery unveiled

A baby mammoth unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia could be the best preserved specimen of its type, scientists have said.

The frozen carcass is to be sent to Japan for detailed study.

The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.

The animal's trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6284214.stm

 

[tommy-gunn]

if someone can answer this please do,
How on Earth do scientists get DNA from the frozen carcass, wouldn't all the cells in the body have died by now?

 

[BoomBoom]

if someone can answer this please do,
How on Earth do scientists get DNA from the frozen carcass, wouldn't all the cells in the body have died by now?

A cell doesn't need to be alive to extract DNA. The DNA just needs to be intact and decently preserved. Even if it was partially degraded, I would assume you could still do a shotgun assembly to rebuild and retrieve the original sequence.

 

[baywax]

Since previous articles on Mammoths were posted here due to the DNA/cloning issue I thought I'd put it here (see even mentors aren't always sure where to put things).

I thought this was very cool. This might give us a good DNA sample.

Baby mammoth discovery unveiled



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6284214.stm

This was quite the discovery!

It fits with the Biology forum but it will also have implications (according to the article) to do with the climate of that period. Really quite the "perfect specimen". Poor little mammoth. Don't they need a consent form signed by the baby or the mother to collect DNA? This may infer the wrath of the Ghost Mammoths. They never forget.

 

[hypatia]

Thats is really something special. Even at 100,000 yrs old, its still cute too!