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In my article "Cloning Extinct Animals I," I discussed whether it might be possible to clone a mammoth. The Discovery Channel has produced two documentaries following a team of scientists who discovered a frozen mammoth in Russia. The scientists hoped to recover genetic material from this mammoth specimen that could be used both to learn more about these extinct beasts, but also there was the possibility that the material could be used to produce a living clone.
In Chapter 1 "Raising the Dead," Stone gives us a brief glimpse of the French mammoth seeker Bernard Buigues after the discovery of the frozen mammoth carcass in Siberia in late October 2000. He then briefly mentions some of the questions that scientists currently have about mammoths and the history of studying these animals. "While dinosaur hunters must settle for dusty bones, the DNA in these relics long gone, mannoth hunters know they can find the real thing: gnarled plaits of mammoth hair, still attached to the skin, smelling mangy-and alive," Stone tantalizes. In Chapter 2 "Treasure of the Wooden Hills," Stone begins by discussing the June 23rd, 1977 discovery of a mamontyonok, a baby mammoth, in Siberia. Later named Dima after a nearby rivulet by paleontologist Nikolai K. Vereshchagin, the mamontyonok was the best-preserved frozen mammoth ever found, even to traces of his mother's milk found in his stomach. Dima later provided mitochondrial DNA, which was processed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine the relationship of mammoths with the rock hyrax, elephants, the manatee, dugong, and Stellar's sea cow Stone delves into the history of mammoth discoveries. A second century B.C.E. Chinese text the Shen I King calls mammoths the K'i shu, a type of giant rat or rodent. Mammoth skulls may have been the source for the Cyclops myth, and in the 1500's a mammoth molar was displayed as the tooth of Saint Christopher. As early as 1696, however, German scholar Wilhelm Ernst Tenzel recognized mammoth bones from a local quarry as belonging to an ancient elephant. But where had these elephants come from, and why were they no longer found in Northern Europe and Asia? Curiosity led to the first modern mammoth hunters, who sought to learn more about the giant beast that they believed to still live somewhere. (Remember that the concept of extinction had not yet been recognized. And it was the mammoth that was the first species to be officially declared extinct.)
The copyright of the article Book Review: Mammoth: The Resurrection of an Ice Age Giant in Paleontology is owned by . Permission to republish Book Review: Mammoth: The Resurrection of an Ice Age Giant in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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