Asian Geographic – Special Edition 2017-2018

the legacy of the woolly mammoth

RELATIONSHIP TO THE MODERN ELEPHANT

• Woolly mammoths are closely related
  to today’s Asian elephants


• The giants of the Ice Age weren’t as large
  as you think: They were about the size of
  today’s African elephants, growing to a
  height of between 2.7 and 4.6 metres
  (in the case of the steppe mammoth)


• A mammoth’s ears were shorter than the
  modern elephant’s ears – an adaptation
  to prevent frostbite

THE TUSK HUNT

• Mammoth ivory trading – unlike
  elephant ivory – is legal


• The hunt for mammoth tusks in Arctic
  Siberia has been enabled by global
  warming, as the permafrost melts,
  revealing the remains


• A mammoth tusk can range from three
  to four metres in length


• A top-grade mammoth tusk can fetch
  around USD400 per 500 grams

BRINGING BACK THE MAMMOTH?

The concept of mammoth cloning

is contested – and controversial –

in scientific circles, primarily because

there is concern that the woolly

mammoth’s habitat is no longer,

so it would not survive in today’s

climate. Microbes – which animals

rely on to digest food – have changed

in the 10,000 years since the woolly

mammoths were around

MAMMOTH

Cloning a Woolly Mammoth

ELEPHANT

NUCLEI

Egg cells are then taken from a

modern elephant, and the DNA

material is similarly removed.

Using a gene-editing technique,

the mammoth cells are then placed

within the elephant egg cells

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The fertilised egg is then placed

in the modern elephant’s womb,

with the idea that she will give

birth to a live mammoth. This is far

from cloning mammoths, but it is a

first step to manipulating the DNA

found in mammoth corpses

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Preserved cells are extracted

from frozen mammoth corpses.

The nuclei is then extracted

from the mammoth cell

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