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Last of Woolly Mammoths Had North American Roots
Beasts established themselves earlier than presumed

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The last woolly mammoths had exclusively North American genetic roots, according to Canadian researchers who say their finding challenges conventional wisdom and could generate controversy.

Woolly mammoths lived between 40,000 and 4,000 years ago.

"Scientists have always thought that because mammoths roamed such a huge territory -- from Western Europe to Central North America -- that North American wooly mammoths were a sideshow of no particular significance to the evolution of the species," Hendrik Poinar, an associate professor in the departments of anthropology, and pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said in a university news release.

Poinar and colleague Regis Debruyne collected and analyzed DNA samples from mammoth remains found in Siberia and in North America.

About 5 million to 6 million years ago, an early mammoth species migrated north into China, Siberia and, eventually, North America, which gave rise to a new mammoth known as the Columbian mammoth, Poinar explained. Much later, a cold-adapted form called the woolly mammoth evolved in Siberia and eventually crossed over into North America. The Siberian genetic forms then began to disappear and were replaced by North American migrants.

"Migrations over Beringia [the land bridge that once spanned the Bering Strait] were rare; it served as a filter to keep eastern and western groups or populations of woollies apart," Poinar said. "However, it now appears that mammoths established themselves in North America much earlier than presumed, then migrated back to Siberia, and eventually replaced all pre-existing haplotypes of mammoths."

"Like paleontologists, molecular biologists have long been operating under a geographic bias," Debruyne said in the McMaster University news release. "For more than a century, any discussion on the woolly mammoth has primarily focused on the well-studied Eurasian mammoths. Little attention was dedicated to the North American samples, and it was generally assumed their contribution to the evolutionary history of the species was negligible. This study certainly proves otherwise."

The study was published in the September issue of Current Biology.

More information

The Academy of Natural Sciences has more about the woolly mammoth.

now make a funny johnny!

Ain't nuthin' funny 'bout the plight of the Woolly Mammoth.

Woolly mammoth task: Extinct critter's DNA mapped
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer 11 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Scientists for the first time have unraveled much of the genetic code of an extinct animal, the ice age's woolly mammoth, and with it they are thawing Jurassic Park dreams.

Their groundbreaking achievement has them contemplating a once unimaginable future when certain prehistoric species might one day be resurrected.

"It could be done. The question is, just because we might be able to do it one day, should we do it?" asked Stephan Schuster, the Penn State University biochemistry professor and co-author of the new research. "I would be surprised to see if it would take more than 10 or 20 years to do it."

The million-dollar project is a first rough draft, detailing the more than 3 billion DNA building blocks of the mammoth, according to the study published in Thursday's journal Nature. It's about 80 percent finished. But that's enough to give scientists new clues on the timing of evolution and the deadly intricacies of extinction.

The project relied on mammoth hair found frozen in the Siberian permafrost, instead of bone, giving biologists a new method to dig into ancient DNA. Think of it as CSI Siberia, said Schuster. That different technique — along with soaring improvements in genome sequencing and the still embryonic field of synthetic biology — are inspiring scientists to envision a science-fiction-like future.

Crucial to the mammoth mapping are about 20 hairballs. Past efforts to use ancient DNA were hampered because bacteria, viruses and parasites crept into the bone fossils during the millenia-old degradation process, making much of the found genetic material something other than what scientists study. For example, current efforts to study Neanderthal DNA have been complicated because only about 6 percent of the recovered genetic material actually belonged to our ancient cousins.

Schuster says that it should be possible to someday recreate any extinct creature "within the last 100,000 years" as long as it got trapped in permafrost and had hair. But that leaves out the Jurassic Period, the time of dinosaurs.

So Earth's real-life sequel to extinction is far more likely to be Ice Age 3 than Jurassic Park IV.

Three years ago, Japanese scientists said they planned to find frozen mammoth sperm and impregnate an elephant and raise the offspring in a safari park in Siberia. But using genetics to engineer a mammoth makes more sense, Schuster said.

Anthropology professor Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said he no longer considers such ideas impossible. Poinar, who wasn't part of Schuster's study but consulted on the movie Jurassic Park, said director Steven Spielberg may have had it right when he told skeptical scientists: "This is the science of eventuality."

And it doesn't have to be a full resurrected mammoth. Scientists could examine what makes the mammoth different from its closest cousin, the African elephant, and create a hairy hybrid to sit in zoos, said George Church, director of computational genomics at Harvard Medical School: "People would like to see a hairy elephant."

Alex Greenwood, a biology professor at Old Dominion University who also studies ancient DNA called the research "an amazing achievement."

The more practical side of what this new research will do is point out better the evolutionary differences between mammoths and elephants and even humans and chimps, said Church, who wasn't part of the study.

Elephants and mammoths — comparable in size at about 8 to 14 feet tall — diverged along evolutionary paths about 6 million years ago, about the same time humans and chimps did, Schuster said. But there are twice as many differences between the genetic makeup of chimps and humans as those between elephants and mammoths.

"Primates evolved twice as fast as elephants," Schuster said. But some animals such as rodents have had even more evolutionary changes, indicating that it might have to do with size or metabolism, said study co-author Webb Miller.

Another interesting finding is that in the 50 or so species with mostly mapped genomes, there are certain areas where the genetic code is exactly the same in all the animals — except the mammoth.

In other animals these, proteins "stayed the same for a very long time except in the woolly mammoth," said Miller, professor of biology and computer science, also at Penn State. "I don't know what it means. All I did was find them."

Miller and Schuster noticed that most of the mammoths they examined had far less genetic diversity than other species that are still alive and that may also give a clue into the biology of extinction.

So the duo are also applying what they learned from the cold Siberian behemoth to their other efforts to help save the endangered Tasmanian devil of Australia. They notice the same dramatic lack of genetic diversity in that modern day creature, Schuster said.

if they made them the same size as dogs people would be lining up.

The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered, descendant from the Old Norse words stýri meaning “rudder” (from the verb stýra, literally “being at the helm”, “having a hand in”) and borð meaning etymologically “board”, then the “side of a ship”.

"If them Mammoths didn't like America, they could git' ooouuuut'uh!"

UR A MAMMOTH

Video of baby Woolly.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en- ... om=&fg=rss

Big Fat Retard wrote:Video of baby Woolly.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en- ... om=&fg=rss

that was pretty amazing. exciting times, these are....

Before I croak, I'm gonna get me a hairy elephant and ride it around Gray's Lake while flipping eveyone off and yelling "fuck you and your bald elephant bitches"!

This band is a myth.

moltar wrote:This band is a myth.

True Story

moltar wrote:This band is a myth.

This thread was a disappointment on the most epic of scales.

In case anyone wondered, I would still be in this band.

Thom wrote:

moltar wrote:This band is a myth.

This thread was a disappointment on the most epic of scales.

In case anyone wondered, I would still be in this band.

Lets do it!!

I don't remember the songs.

-Joe.

storkus wrote:

Big Fat Retard wrote:Scientists could examine what makes the mammoth different from its closest cousin, the African elephant, and create a hairy hybrid to sit in zoos, said George Church, director of computational genomics at Harvard Medical School: "People would like to see a hairy elephant."

This paragraph makes me nauseous.

nauseated.

Joe wrote:I don't remember the songs.

-Joe.

We only had one, and I remember it perfectly. I've been listening to a lot of "sorry" lately, and its got me ready to jam!

There were two songs, dude.
I'LL BE AT YOUR HOUSE LATER TO RELEARN THEM.

-Joe.

I remember one and I may remember the 2nd one if I try real hard.

Could cloned mammoths be in our future?
By Curt Nettinga

HOT SPRINGS – Published reports last week cried out that through a new way of deciphering better-preserved woolly mammoth DNA, the huge creatures, now 10,000 years extinct, could once again roam the Black Hills.

And one world-renowned authority on the mammoth, Dr. Larry Agenbroad of the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, sees the possibility as a good thing.

“Sure it’s a good thing,” Dr. Agenbroad said last Thursday. “I don’t see any problem with bringing a mammoth back. There is really no reason that they wouldn’t be able to survive today.”

Researchers associated with Penn State University have been able to map approximately 80 percent of the genome of the woolly mammoth, from hair samples preserved in the Siberian permafrost.

“Hair is better than bone,” Agenbroad pointed out, “because the exterior of the hair protects the inside.” The study states that the DNA from hair is less likely to be subjected to bacteria or viruses, because of the outer protection.

“It’s amazing that 80 percent of the genome is figured out,” Agenbroad said, “although that means that 20 percent is still left. But 15 years ago, something like this was next to impossible. There have been quantum leaps made in the past 15 years, in the areas of technique and speed.”

The study, published in the November issue of Nature magazine (nature.com) says that mammoth DNA is just that - mammoth sized. The woolly mammoth genome is 4.7 billion base pairs of DNA, half again as many as are found in the human genome.

“The article says that they are looking at the African elephant genome to assist in the project,” Agenbroad said. “Although I believe that the woolly mammoth is more closely related to the Asian elephant than the African.”

Agenbroad, who has participated in several international mammoth digs and conferences, said that he knows several of the scientists who participated in writing the Nature article and assisted in the editing process of a similar story for the November issue of National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)

One of the best-known projects in which Agenbroad participated was a show title “Raising the Mammoth” on the Discovery Channel several years ago. Could we be years away from having a viable opportunity to observe the huge creatures roaming freely again?

“I really don’t know why they wouldn’t be able to survive,” Agenbroad said. “They were grass-eaters; and there is still grass to eat.”

He draws comparisons to how the federal government has participated in the re-introduction of wolves and grizzly bears.

“One-hundred years ago, there were wolves and grizzlies everywhere, but they were hunted to near-extinction. Ten thousand years ago, humans helped exterminate the woolly mammoth. It’s really no different,” he said.

Agenbroad is also excited that the discovery could lead to the re-introduction of other recently or nearly extinct animals, such as the New Zealand moa or the Tasmanian wolf. The outer coating of feathers from the moa, a 550-pound wingless bird believed to have been hunted to extinction, could protect it’s DNA as well.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Agenbroad said of the possibility of literally raising a woolly mammoth.

“What is far more exciting is that it now seems to be a possible thing.”