Mammoth Archives | Moss and Fog

Artisan

Stem Cell Breakthrough Brings the Return of the Woolly Mammoth Closer to Reality

March 11, 2024 Artisan

If you didn’t know there was an industry attempting de-extinction, now you do. Colossal Biosciences is one of the largest companies working, and they recently announced a breakthrough in stem cell research, which brings them closer to their major goal, of bringing the woolly mammoth back to life.

Able to turn induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from engineered elephant cells into an embryonic state, the team at Colossal are making big strides towards their ambitious goals of bringing the first woolly mammoth babies into the world by the year 2028.

It’s a hugely difficult and controversial project, and one that we find fascinating for a number of reasons. What’s your take? Is de-extinction an exciting step, or a possibly dangerous one?

Read more about the complex process on Colossal’s website.

Via CNN:

The mammoth lived during the ice age, and died out over 4,000 years ago.

An artist’s impression of induced pluripotent stem cells.Illustration: Alpha Tauri 3D Graphics

Colossal Biosciences has a long list of species it wants to bring back to life, including the Dodo bird, and the Thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger.

“Engineering a woolly mammoth embryo no longer poses a huge challenge, Hysolli said, but birthing a healthy calf will take more time and work. The team is still researching alternative methods to generate elephant iPSCs and maturing the ones they have newly developed. The iPSCs breakthrough, which will be published on the preprint database bioRxiv, has yet to be peer-reviewed.”

-LiveScience

An Asian elephant stem cell line stained in different colors to highlight different elements. Courtesy Colossal

Animals

Yuka The Mammoth

July 21, 2013 Animals

On public display in Yokohama, Japan, Yuka is the best preserved mammoth in the history of paleontology, at a ripe old age of 39,000 years. Found three years ago, she’s so well preserved that tissue, hair/fur, and even the brain is intact.

Via The Verge:

Yuka was found three years ago in the Siberian permafrost and was between six to eleven years old when she died. The mammoth takes her name from the Yukaghir coastline; Yuka is also a common girl’s name in Japan, paving the way for countless cute cuddly toys.

Lead researcher Semyon Grigoriev explained to The Siberian Times in May that Yuka stayed in such good condition because she remained frozen for a long, unbroken period of time.

“We suppose that the mammoth fell into water or got bogged down in a swamp, could not free herself and died. Due to this fact the lower part of the body, including the lower jaw and tongue tissue, was preserved very well. The upper torso and two legs, which were in the soil, were gnawed by prehistoric and modern predators and almost did not survive.”

Although the carcass was frozen for millennia, the team was even able to extract flowing blood from Yuka — the first time scientists have managed to do so. “Our suspicion is that mammoth blood contains a kind of natural anti-freeze,” says Grigoriev.

South Korean scientists have signed a deal giving them rights to attempt to clone the mammoth; Hwang Woo-suk, who produced the world’s first cloned dog in 2005 before being convicted of lying about breakthroughs in human stem cell research, has taken delivery of tissue samples that may contain intact cells.

However, serious doubt remains over whether it is possible to find or construct a complete, viable mammoth genome from such old material. “Every time a new well-preserved mammoth is found,” said Professor Adrian Lister of London’s Natural History Museum to The Guardian, “people also repeat the claim that we will soon be able to clone them, and I very much doubt that we will.”

Branding/Identity

Mammoth Falls

March 11, 2013 Branding/Identity

South African artist Aldo Pulella has an intriguing and inviting little world he calls Mammoth Falls, rendered in low poly form. I’d like to take a visit to this mountainous and scenic spot. Via Behance:

From the artist:

Mammoth Falls was an experiment of Atmospheric Art Direction, I have been wanting to play with for quite some time.

Taking the idea of low poly and executing a place that brought back an old feeling, a place I once visited. Then taking that feeling and creating a ficticious place of my own.