Goudarzi, Sara
23 February 2009
Science World
ISSN: 1041-1410; Volume 65; Issue 10
Copyright 2009 Gale Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Woolly mammoths roamed Earth thousands of years ago during the last Ice Age. Even though the furry elephant-like creatures are now extinct, scientists are learning about mammoths from fossils and body parts frozen in ice.
Recently, scientists from Pennsylvania State University analyzed the DNA, or chemical that carries hereditary information, from hairs that had been plucked from a woolly mammoth that was frozen in the Siberian snow for roughly 20,000 years. This is the first time anyone has sequenced the genome (an organism's complete sequence of DNA) of an extinct animal.
The scientists compared the mammoth's DNA with genetic material from elephants. It turns out, the animals' genes are nearly identical to each other. This means that if scientists were to take DNA from an elephant and change it just a little, they possibly could re-create a living woolly mammoth.
"I would like to see a woolly mammoth and maybe my grandchildren will," says Webb Miller who co-headed the study.
GENOME SIZES
The genome, or complete genetic sequence, of each species varies in its number of DNA molecules. Which organism's genome is closest in size to the woolly mammoth's?
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