We've reported on the scientists trying to bring the wooly mammoth back from extinction before:
And now they've announced a huge success in the project.
Wooly Mice!
Maybe I'm crazy, but a tiny, wooly mouse sounds like the opposite of a giant, wooly pachyderm to me.
But the scientists assure us this is a validating study important to the process:
Two of the genes targeted in the mice were also found in mammoths, where they are thought to have contributed to a woolly coat, with the changes introduced by the researchers designed to make the mouse genes more mammoth-like.
The team also disrupted a gene associated with the way fats are metabolised in mice and were also found in mammoths, which they suggest could play a role in cold adaptation.
The next step is to see how the genetically altered mice behave in cold weather to see if the gene alterations also affect survival instincts.
Robin Lovell-Badge, head of stem cell research at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said the experiments did not prove anything and that the team wasn't pulling the wool over anyone's eyes.
'My overall concern is whether this is a sensible use of resources rather than spending the money on trying to prevent species from becoming extinct,' Lovell-Badge said.
'As it is, we have some cute-looking hairy mice, with no understanding of their physiology, behaviour, etc. It doesn't get them [the researchers] any closer to knowing if they would eventually be able to give an elephant useful mammoth-like traits, and we have learned little biology.'
Hey, if it doesn't work out, there's always lab-grown mammoth meatballs!
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