MASSIVE IDEA: Bring woolly mammoth back to Canada's Arctic
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ostmedia News
Publishing date:Sep 14, 2021 • 11 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A new startup says it's ready and willing to spend $15 million US on the Jurassic Park-style endeavor of reviving a long-dead woolly mammoth in the hopes of one day restoring it to the tundra regions where it once freely roamed.
A new startup says it's ready and willing to spend $15 million US on the Jurassic Park-style endeavor of reviving a long-dead woolly mammoth in the hopes of one day restoring it to the tundra regions where it once freely roamed. PHOTO BY ISTOCK /GETTY IMAGES
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It’s an investment of mammoth proportions.
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A new startup says it’s ready and willing to spend US$15 million on the Jurassic Park-style endeavor of reviving a long-dead woolly mammoth in the hopes of one day restoring it to the tundra regions where it once freely roamed.
Those regions now belong to countries such as Russia and Canada, which surely will have an opinion about bringing gigantic elephant hybrids into their respective wildernesses, which today looks vastly different than when the last mammoth died some 4,000 years ago.
The company behind it all — aptly named Colossal — says it has raised enough private cash to potentially make its hairy dream a reality through cutting-edge gene-editing techniques.
“Our teams have collected viable DNA samples, and are editing the genes that will allow this wonderful megafauna to once again thunder through the Arctic,” Colossal says on its website.
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Biotch entrepreneur Ben Lamm and George Church, a Harvard geneticist, announced the ambitious startup on Monday.
“Our goal is to make a cold-resistant elephant, but this is going to look and behave like a mammoth,” Church told the Evening Standard. “Not because we are trying to trick anybody, but because we want something that is functionally equivalent to the mammoth, that will enjoy its time at -40 Celsius, and do all the things that elephants and mammoths do.”
The company also wants to establish a population that will interbreed and carry on without human guidance.
As for the timeline, the co-founders aim to produce mammoth elephant calves within the next six years, with future populations eyed for northern Eurasia and North America.
Colossal says the project is a de-extinction effort that could also help the environment, particularly if the mammoth hybrids can transform the tundra into fertile carbon-capturing grassland.
The company’s method could also lead to the revival of other extinct species, including ones that perished as a result of human activity.
![GettyImages-1178017061[1].jpg](https://forums.canadiancontent.net/data/attachments/8/8281-3f648238e2c3ebcc8f76bacebc2638af.jpg "GettyImages-1178017061[1].jpg")
torontosun.com
Author of the article
ostmedia NewsPublishing date:Sep 14, 2021 • 11 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A new startup says it's ready and willing to spend $15 million US on the Jurassic Park-style endeavor of reviving a long-dead woolly mammoth in the hopes of one day restoring it to the tundra regions where it once freely roamed.
A new startup says it's ready and willing to spend $15 million US on the Jurassic Park-style endeavor of reviving a long-dead woolly mammoth in the hopes of one day restoring it to the tundra regions where it once freely roamed. PHOTO BY ISTOCK /GETTY IMAGES
Article content
It’s an investment of mammoth proportions.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
A new startup says it’s ready and willing to spend US$15 million on the Jurassic Park-style endeavor of reviving a long-dead woolly mammoth in the hopes of one day restoring it to the tundra regions where it once freely roamed.
Those regions now belong to countries such as Russia and Canada, which surely will have an opinion about bringing gigantic elephant hybrids into their respective wildernesses, which today looks vastly different than when the last mammoth died some 4,000 years ago.
The company behind it all — aptly named Colossal — says it has raised enough private cash to potentially make its hairy dream a reality through cutting-edge gene-editing techniques.
“Our teams have collected viable DNA samples, and are editing the genes that will allow this wonderful megafauna to once again thunder through the Arctic,” Colossal says on its website.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Biotch entrepreneur Ben Lamm and George Church, a Harvard geneticist, announced the ambitious startup on Monday.
“Our goal is to make a cold-resistant elephant, but this is going to look and behave like a mammoth,” Church told the Evening Standard. “Not because we are trying to trick anybody, but because we want something that is functionally equivalent to the mammoth, that will enjoy its time at -40 Celsius, and do all the things that elephants and mammoths do.”
The company also wants to establish a population that will interbreed and carry on without human guidance.
As for the timeline, the co-founders aim to produce mammoth elephant calves within the next six years, with future populations eyed for northern Eurasia and North America.
Colossal says the project is a de-extinction effort that could also help the environment, particularly if the mammoth hybrids can transform the tundra into fertile carbon-capturing grassland.
The company’s method could also lead to the revival of other extinct species, including ones that perished as a result of human activity.
MASSIVE IDEA: Bring woolly mammoth back to Canada's Arctic
It's an investment of mammoth proportions.
