The last woolly mammoths populations died out just over 4,000 years ago, but the ancient giants could soon be back and tramp about just like they were during the ice age.
The giant woolly mammoth with huge shaggy torsos and long curved tusks were once found centuries ago during the Ice Age. Japanese scientists have taken a ‘significant step’ to help them make an appearance back on Earth.
The team from Kindai University in Osaka extracted bone marrow and muscle tissue from the remains of a mammoth named Yuka, who has been frozen in Siberian permafrost for over 28,000 years.
After authenticating the extracted tissue samples through whole-genome sequencing techniques, the team searched for cell nuclei remains, finding total 88 nucleus-like structures from the muscle sample.
They then injected cell nuclei from the mammoth’s muscle tissue into mouse cell eggs. This resulted in signs of biological activities.
The biological activity detected in the mouse’s egg cells included a type of structural formulation that reportedly precedes cell division. They also found possible signs of repair to the damaged mammoth DNA.
However, despite the positive findings, the researchers acknowledged that they still have a long way to go before the species come back from the dead. Miyamoto added, “We want to move our study forward to the stage of cell division.”