A biotech company claims that in four years there will be a small woolly mammoth running around the frozen steppes of the Arctic Circle.
Colossal, an American biotech company, is hell-bent on bringing woolly mammoths back from extinction through gene editing.
The technology is so advanced that they claim the first of these mammoths will come back to life in just 4 years, in 2027.
Colossal’s goal is not only to show that the technology works and it is possible to reverse the extinction of animal species, but also, they say, to reintroduce the woolly mammoth into its natural habitat to fight climate change.
Although the reason sounds a bit forced, the company insists that the migratory patterns and eating habits of these huge animals help preserve the Arctic, and that their return can positively impact the entire planet.
Although this depends on how the Ukrainian war goes. Colossal planned to reintroduce the woolly mammoth to its last known habitat in Siberia some 3,700 years ago, but the warlike climate in Russia has forced them to look for other alternatives.
“In the minds of many, this creature is gone forever,” the company says. “But not in the minds of our scientists, nor in our company labs.
We are already in the process of ‘de-extinction’ of the woolly mammoth. Our teams have collected viable DNA samples and are editing the genes that will allow this amazing megafauna to once again thunder across the Arctic.”
The road to ‘Jurassic Park’
The company has been working with the CRISPR gene-editing tool since 2021 to create a woolly mammoth embryo.
For this they have used DNA samples found in previous investigations and have replaced the missing links with those of the Asian elephant, an animal with which it shares 99.6% of its DNA.
Once they have it, the plan is to introduce it into the uterus of a female African elephant for pregnancy. These animals, they comment, are larger than Asian elephants and more suitable to conceive a woolly mammoth.