Mammoth could be reborn within four years

At first this news seems something to celebrate, after all resurrecting a lifeform is quite an achievement, but then I wonder.

Why create a mammoth first ?

When it is a cold climate adapted specie and we are in an interglacial phase, which is set to last a few thousand years yet. (unless seriousely anomalous weather is expected in the shorter term, due to space weather or unusual movement of the galactic bodies.)

Mammoths are hardly a sustainable specie to resurrect if current medium term climate projections are correct.

(However if an unexpected little ice age is on the cards - it is not a bad choice - providing food, fuel and resources in the form of skin, bone and ivory)

I understand that the mammoth has only been extinct for a short time, and that genetic samples are available, but of all the creatures, why resurrect this particular animal?

If you could choose an extinct animal to resurrect, and genetic samples were available, which animal would you choose ?

The Cape Lion
Panthera leo melanochaitus
is a subspecies of lion that is now extinct.

Cape "black-maned" Lions ranged along the Cape of Africa on the southern tip of the continent.

Its stronghold was Cape Province, in the area around Cape Town.

One of the last Cape Lions seen in the province was killed in 1858.

Photos of stuffed Cape Lions in Europe museum


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Mammoth factoids:wiki
- The word mammoth comes from the Russian мамонт mamont, probably in turn from the Vogul (Mansi) language, mang ont, meaning "earth horn".
- Based on studies of their close relatives the modern elephants, mammoths probably had a gestation period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born.
- Their social structure was probably the same as that of African and Asian elephants, with females living in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity.
 
A Cape Lion just looks like a normal lion with kroes hair. Why'd you want to revive it? I say revive one of those giant dinosaurs that eat leaves. Now there's a lot of meat right there.
 
A Cape Lion just looks like a normal lion with kroes hair. Why'd you want to revive it? I say revive one of those giant dinosaurs that eat leaves. Now there's a lot of meat right there.

Hahaha, okay I admit it, a tame pterodactyl would be awesome - I would call it Ripley.
 
I say revive one of those giant dinosaurs that eat leaves. Now there's a lot of meat right there.

Yeah but then you must contend with giant methane-producing farts. Methane is much more damaging than CO2.
 
Nice to see biologists working so hard to bring back the dinosaur age. I wonder which island they going to keep them on?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
At first this news seems something to celebrate, after all resurrecting a lifeform is quite an achievement, but then I wonder.

Why create a mammoth first ?

When it is a cold climate adapted specie and we are in an interglacial phase, which is set to last a few thousand years yet. (unless seriousely anomalous weather is expected in the shorter term, due to space weather or unusual movement of the galactic bodies.)

Mammoths are hardly a sustainable specie to resurrect if current medium term climate projections are correct.

(However if an unexpected little ice age is on the cards - it is not a bad choice - providing food, fuel and resources in the form of skin, bone and ivory)

I understand that the mammoth has only been extinct for a short time, and that genetic samples are available, but of all the creatures, why resurrect this particular animal?

somehow I dont think they're doing this to populate the earth with mammoths - its about 'can it be done'. We'll worry about the consequences later ;)
 
Really? I had no idea an animals farts could damage the ozone layer.

Strue. When ozone layer destruction first came-up there was a semi-fringe group who blamed cow farts. You are talking about a many-times-scaled-up herbivore cow creature.
 
A Cape Lion just looks like a normal lion with kroes hair. Why'd you want to revive it? I say revive one of those giant dinosaurs that eat leaves. Now there's a lot of meat right there.

rofl
 
[video=youtube;mu5W-dzodUM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu5W-dzodUM&feature=related[/video]

I frikkin hate sharks, and now look what you made me look for.
 
[video=youtube;mu5W-dzodUM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu5W-dzodUM&feature=related[/video]

I frikkin hate sharks, and now look what you made me look for.

hehe, me too

/cue new nightmare's about Mega-Shark....
 
[video=youtube;mu5W-dzodUM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu5W-dzodUM&feature=related[/video]

I frikkin hate sharks, and now look what you made me look for.

There’s no ‘Jaws’ music. Fail.
 
Fossil female pterosaur found with preserved egg in China

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596

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For fossil hunters, it represents one of those breakthrough moments.

A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.

The egg indicates this ancient flying reptile was a female, and that realisation has allowed researchers to sex these creatures for the first time.

Writing in Science magazine, the palaeontologists make some broad statements about gender differences in pterosaurs, including the observation that only males sported a head-crest.

The new creature is from the Darwinopterus genus, or grouping, but has been dubbed simply as "Mrs T" (a contraction of "Mrs Pterodactyl") by the research team.

The state of the egg's shell suggests it was well developed and that Mrs T must have been very close to laying it when she died.

She appears to have had some sort of accident as her left forearm is broken. The researchers speculate she may have fallen from the sky during a storm or perhaps a volcanic eruption, sunk to the bottom of a lake and then been preserved in the sediments.

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Wow, seems like my future flying pet Ripley might manifest :)
 
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