July 10, 2007
Frozen baby mammoth
A baby mammoth unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia could be the best preserved specimen of its type, scientists have said.From the BBC, which has a picture.The frozen carcass is to be sent to Japan for detailed study.
The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.
The animal's trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.
Also of note is the potential for cloning. It seems that it is now only a matter of time before we see living mammoths once again. If the mammoth remains can be kept out of the clutches of the looters, that is:
Dr Agenbroad warned that scientifically valuable Siberian mammoth specimens were being lost to a lucrative trade in ivory, skin, hair and other body parts. . .Local people are scouring the Siberian permafrost for remains to sell on, and, according to Dr Agenbroad, more carcasses could be falling into the hands of dealers than are finding their way to scientists.
"These products are primarily for collectors and it is usually illicit," he explained.
"Originally it was for ivory, now it is everything. You can now go on almost any fossil marketing website and find mammoth hair for $50 an inch. It has grown beyond anyone's imagination."
Posted by David on July 10, 2007 11:00 AM
Cloning: yes! I look forward to mammoth-burgers.
Posted by: dearieme on July 10, 2007 5:17 PM
Mr. Agenbroad is perhaps crying "wolf" when there is no wolf at the door, and unfortunately he has an uninformed sense of the commercial fossil market or its purveyors. Much of Mr. Agenbroads notions of "fossil eitiquite" is in lock step with the almost never ending and boring battle between "commercial" collectors and some of those on the public dole. This was a battle that culminated in the seizure of the dinosaur named "Sue" and its final auction by the U.S. Government at an auction house to be purchased by Disney and McDonalds fr some $8 million and then given to the Field Museum in Chicago. Of course not many of the public dole collectors voiced outrage and recognized that this action heralded the end of any cooperation of private foks with public institutions. The price of fossils, stimulated by museums, leaped amazingly and why should any private person or amateur donate discoveries, when the museum world itsaelf pays astronimical dollars for deat things, fossils.
Mammoth parts are not uncommon, and there apparently is nothing wrong with the commercial exploitation of these materials in Siberia or other eastrer Asian regions as a matter of law. Thosuands of mammoths and mastodons have already been discovered and many thousands more can be found. The fact that there is an abundance of commercial material on the market indicates the relative ewase or surplus of discovery and this likely includes many well preserved carcasses. Ther is nothing preventing Mr. Agenbroad from purchasing any of this material the same as any other buyer. Of course Mr. Agenbroad would seem to want some governmental agency to confiscate the commercial material he terms "ilicit" and I presume the material would be turned over to him and he would not have to pay for it. Certtainly this is less than democratic.
If I seem a bit a"angry" on this toipic, well, I am. A good part of the academic world, who for years encouraged the "commercial" world to go do what they do "quietly" but when the commercial activity became public, the academicsa showed and continue to show less backbone than the organisms they study. "Sue" was perhaps the worst example, but there are many more.
Finally, there is very good published evidence that DNA rapidly deteriorates and there is little or no liklihood for "cloning" mammoths or much else older than a modest number of years.
Posted by: Donald Wolberg on July 10, 2007 7:51 PM
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