Dallas, Texas – A biotech company, Colossal Biosciences, made a groundbreaking announcement on Wednesday, revealing their ambitious plan to bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction. The company, based in Dallas, has successfully created a set of stem cells from an Asian elephant with the goal of resurrecting the enormous, 6-ton, 16-foot creature.
Geneticist and Harvard University professor George Church, a co-founder of Colossal, expressed that this achievement marks a significant milestone in the initial stages of the project. The company aims to recreate a creature that closely resembles the woolly mammoth, with traits like a heavy fur coat and ample fat to endure freezing temperatures.
Approximately 4,000 years have passed since the woolly mammoth vanished, and while the company does not intend to bring back the same species, they strive to develop an animal with striking similarities to the ancient mammal. This new mammoth would walk, look, and sound like its predecessor, potentially re-inhabiting ecosystems left behind by the mammoth’s extinction.
Colossal’s ambitious objective involves genetically modifying a stem cell’s nucleus with genes from a mammoth, combining it with an elephant egg, and ultimately implanting the embryo into an elephant surrogate for birth. However, not everyone supports Colossal’s goal, as some scientists raise ethical and environmental concerns.
Tori Herridge, a paleontologist from the University of Sheffield, cautioned that any living elephant carrying a mammoth offspring may endure some level of suffering. The debate around whether the benefits of reviving the woolly mammoth outweigh the potential risks continues among experts in the field.
The company remains steadfast in its vision, hoping to utilize artificial wombs in the future to further their revival efforts. One argument put forth by Colossal is that reintroducing the woolly mammoth could contribute to combating climate change, as mammoth herds could help slow the thawing of permafrost, thus reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Despite the opposing views and ethical dilemmas, Colossal is determined to forge ahead with its mission to bring back the woolly mammoth, emphasizing the potential benefits for environmental restoration. The ultimate goal of the project is to recreate a species that once played a crucial role in its ecosystem, in hopes of restoring balance to the environment.