London: Scientists have claimed that within five years the extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life from the bone marrow of the species.
A team from Russia's Sakha Republic's mammoth museum and Kinki University in Japan says that the recent discovery of well-preserved marrow inside the thigh bone of a woolly
mammoth in Siberia has raised its hope that the species could be cloned.
The scientists are now gear up to launch a full-fledged joint research next year aiming to recreate the giant mammal, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's marrow cells, embryos with mammoth DNA can be produced, say the scientists.
They will then plant the embryos into elephant wombs for delivery as the two species are close relatives. Securing nuclei with an undamaged gene is essential for the nucleus
transplantation technique, the British daily quoted Japan's 'Kyodo News' as saying.
Mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago. But the discovery in August in Siberia has increased the chances of a successful cloning.
Global warming has thawed ground in eastern Russia that is usually almost permanently frozen, leading to the discoveries of a number of frozen mammoths.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, December 04, 2011, 13:09