New Hope for Cloning Extinct Woolly Mammoth Emerges With Elephant Stem Cell Breakthrough

A woolly mammoth could be free to wander the planet again thanks to a major breakthrough.

Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotech firm, revealed a significant development in its effort to save the 16-foot-long, 6-ton beast from extinction.

Woolly Mammoth de-extinction?

On Wednesday, March 6, Colossal Biosciences announced the creation of a group of stem cells from an Asian elephant with the aim of regenerating a species that would resemble the woolly mammoth, as Reported by The New York Post.

"This is probably the most significant step in the early stages of this project," George Church, a professor at Harvard University and co-founder of the firm, told National Public Radio (NPR).

Nearly 4,000 years ago, the woolly mammoth became extinct. Although the firm would not recreate the identical species, it would design a new animal with comparable characteristics, such as a thick fur coat and enough fat to endure subzero conditions.

"It will walk like a Woolly Mammoth, look like one, sound like one, but most importantly it will be able to inhabit the same ecosystem previously abandoned by the Mammoth's extinction," the company stated.

According to The Washington Post, the business has ambitious plans to combine an elephant egg with a stem cell genetically modified with a mammoth's DNA. An elephant would then be used as a surrogate mother, with the expectation that she would give birth to the embryo.

A mammoth frame specimen was displayed at an exhibition in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo, on July 12, 2013, at a press preview before the opening.
(Photo: KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP via Getty Images)

Not in Favor

However, not everyone supports Colossal Biosciences' objective.

Tori Herridge, a paleontologist from the University of Sheffield in England, has cautioned that any live elephant who gives birth to a new mammoth would experience pain. She expressed her concern about the number of dying elephants to obtain a single woolly mammoth.

Karl Flessa, a geosciences professor at the University of Arizona, was more direct, calling it "irresponsible." He added, "If you're going to release a herd into the Arctic tundra, is that herd going to go marching off to its second extinction in the face of global warming?"

The Washington Post reported that Colossal Biosciences has stated its intention to employ artificial wombs in the future, should all plans pan out.

The company reportedly believes that woolly mammoths may be useful tools in the fight against climate change because wandering herds could prevent the melting of permafrost, a layer of frozen earth that releases carbon into the sky.