Ethics of Cloning a Woolly Mammoth

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Tens of thousands of years ago the now iconic woolly mammoth roamed the ice covered land. Now we have only the specimens preserved in ice of these magnificent creatures but with the discovery of a new extremely well preserved woolly mammoth, an adult nicknamed buttercup, Korean scientists are looking to try cloning her. They believe that as long as they can properly care for the animal and give it a healthy life, they should clone her for the sake of learning more about these animals. However there is some strong opposition from the scientific community. The process of cloning would require an Asian elephant surrogate mother. This means there would be experiments done on the mothers and there's no guarantee they would come out of the pregnancy unharmed and may even die from it. Woolly mammoths, like elephants today, were social creatures and the cloned baby would have to live out a very lonely life. Woolly mammoths also live during a totally different time with drastically different climates. This animal would have to cope with that in addition to living in captivity.

As the saying goes, "just because you can do something doesn't mean you should." Yes we have the technology to perform cloning, and we have a beautiful specimen that may yield the necessary DNA to perform it but that does not no out weigh the reasons we should not perform this experiment. I am personally against this. I believe that no true good would come of it and to be honest there are more recently extinct animals that could be brought back without the same repercussions. The Thylacine might be a better starting point if there should be a starting point at all. Bringing back any extinct animal has its issues. I don't think it is worth the lives of Asian elephants (a species with problems of its own) to bring back an animal that, in all likelihood would not thrive.

(Also see the two Jurassic Park books and the three movies on why this might be a bad idea...)

How was Europe Repopulated After the Ice Age?

Scientists are answering this question through DNA analysis.  During the last Ice Age, most humans were concentrated in two principle areas:  the "Franco-Cantabrian" area, located in curent day northern Spain/southern France, and the "Periglacial province", located in current day Ukranian Plains.  It is generally accepted that humans from these two populations later moved up into Europe to repopulate the area after the Ice Age, nineteen thousand years ago.



Dr. Maria Pala and other scientist from the University of Hudderfield, UK, have analyzed large quantities of mitochondrial DNA from these two groups of humans, whom share a common genetic ancestor.  Their data shows evidence of the two tribes moving into Europe much earlier than previously believed, at the end of the last ice age.  Through this study, the University of Hudderfield has become a key center for archaeo-genetic research.

This research is outlined in the May 2012 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.  This is a major breakthrough in the study of archaeo-genetics.  I think this article show the significane of what we can learn from genetic studies, especially about our past.  It is amazing what we can learn from ancient DNA!!!

Bear Hunting Altered Genetics More Than Ice Age Isolation

It was previously believed that the Ice Age, which effected most species twenty thousand years ago, also effected the distribution of bears.  However, recent studies of mitochondrial DNA led by Anders Gotherstam of Sweden, have shown that this is not the case.  In fact, the European Brown Bear was able to roam freely across Southern and Central Europe throughout the Ice Age.



However, these bears no longer live in these regions.  It is believe that this is due to historical hunting and human activity in what would have been the brown bears natural environment.  Today only a few populations of brown bears remain in Spain, Italy, the Balkans, and Scandinavia.

This study was conducted by researches from Sweden, Spain, the UK, Germany, and France.  It was published in the Molecular Ecology journal.  I was surprised that human activity effected the distribution of bears more than the Ice Age did!  It's depressing to know that even twenty thousand years ago humans were already having a negative effect on our environment.