In Yakutia, it was proposed to create a World Mammoth Center
Paleontologists from Northeastern Federal University reported that they are actively working with colleagues from South Korea to clone mammoths. Although research of this kind is still at an early stage, the first results, after careful verification, may be published in scientific journals in the foreseeable future.
NEFU has been cooperating with the Korean Foundation for Biotechnological Research since 2012 in the framework of the Mammoth Revival project, one of the key goals of which is to find a living mammoth cell suitable for cloning these extinct animals. Reportedly, recently the head of Yakutia, Yegor Borisov, announced that a World Mammoth Center should be built in the region, which would make it possible to more effectively look for ways to revive the ancient giants.
The Mammoth Museum has existed in Yakutsk for quite some time, and in October last year it was announced that it had opened a laboratory for the study of fossil animal tissues, the work of which, reportedly, would help take a step towards cloning them.
The cloning of mammoths causes numerous disputes between various scientists and public figures, and we are talking about both how such a project is realizable and how expedient it is. Proponents of the idea that it is necessary to clone a mammoth argue that such an achievement would make it possible to better study these animals, and, therefore, learn more about evolutionary processes in general. At the same time, many public figures see in such projects only a desire to attract attention to themselves - the increased attention to mammoths, according to skeptics, is explained only by the fact that these ancient animals are a kind of symbol. At the same time, other people are wary of projects to revive mammoths, not because they consider them redundant, but simply because they do not see them fully implemented:supporters of this position argue that the cloning technology has not yet been sufficiently developed on currently existing animals.
However, cloning of animals today is more and more successful - for example, it was recently announced that new clones of the famous Dolly the sheep have lived for more than nine years - twice as long as Dolly herself.
Dmitry Istrov