TOKYO -- Woolly mammoths could roam the earth again someday thanks to research reported Monday, where cell nuclei from one of the long-extinct animals showed biological activity when transplanted into mouse cells.
Bone marrow and muscle tissue were extracted from the remains of a mammoth named Yuka that had been frozen in Siberian permafrost for 28,000 years in the study, published online in the journal Scientific Reports. Genomic DNA was compared against that of elephants, and the researchers confirmed that Yuka's DNA overlapped with the DNA and proteins specific to mammoths.
