A woolly elephant is being blown out of a fly again
Many publications write about it, for example, like this:
Genetic material for cloning mammoths found in YakutiaAccording to the results of the expedition in Yakutia, scientists plan to clone a mammoth…
or so:
A sensation! A mammoth is being cloned in Russia. "Found the necessary biomaterial"The NEFU press release, based on which such sensations are composed, does not say anything like that:
Mammoth skin found on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island,
it can become material for attempts to clone a mammoth
Ulyana Evseeva
The participants of the expedition "Northern Ecumene" of the Northeastern Federal University told about the unique finds that can become the first steps to new discoveries, today, October 7, at a meeting with journalists.
"The Lyakhovsky Islands are considered the center of the mammoth continent. Here is the largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world, so we chose this area for spot research," says the head of the expedition, head of the laboratory "Museum of Mammoth NEFU" Semyon Grigoriev.
During the expedition, six skeletal remains of mammoths were recorded. One of the unique finds for the study of ancient animals was the mammoth skin. "The skin is primarily of interest to us for the Mammoth Rebirth project, because our Korean colleagues believe that it is the skin that is the best material for cloning attempts by isolating viable cells," said the head of the expedition, Semyon Grigoriev.
The tusk of a dwarf mammoth was also discovered. According to the participants, his height according to approximate calculations did not exceed two meters. "The tusk belongs to an old mammoth. Even the most experienced paleontologist Pavel Nikolsky said that it was the first time he saw such a dwarf mammoth. We have to find out what it is: some kind of micropopulation or an individual feature of this particular mammoth," says Semyon Grigoriev.
In addition, such finds as an embryonic tooth of an unborn baby mammoth, a tooth of a trogonterium mammoth and others will be transported to the Mammoth Museum of the NEFU Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North.
The Northern Ecumene expedition worked in the lower reaches of the Yana River, which today is considered the northernmost Paleolithic site in the world. The main research took place on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, where numerous exhibits were collected.
The expedition was carried out under a grant from the Russian Geographical Society with the participation of specialists from five countries, it started on August 11 and ended on September 29. The grant amount is two million rubles.
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08.10.2015