[Animals] Scientists want to clone an extinct bison unearthed from Siberian permafrost. Experts are skeptical.

[BirSaNN]

Researchers in Russia recently dissected a mummified bison dating back to around 8,000 years ago. The remains are so well preserved that the team thinks the extinct animal could be cloned, but others disagree.

Researchers in Russia recently completed a necropsy, or animal autopsy, on a stunningly intact extinct bison that was unearthed from Siberian permafrost. The tissues recovered during the dissection are so well preserved, the team believes the long-dead specimen could be cloned.

But one expert told Live Science that it is a long shot.

The mummified creature, which belongs to an unknown species of extinct bison, was discovered at the Khaastaakh locality in the Verkhoyansk region of Russia in summer 2022 and donated to the Mammoth Museum Laboratory of North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk. Preliminary investigations revealed that the bison was a juvenile of unknown sex that was between 1 and 2 years old when it died. Scientists don't know yet when the bison lived, but similar specimens found in 2009 and 2010 dated to between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, NEFU researchers wrote in a statement(opens in new tab).

 

During the necropsy, researchers took samples of the bison's wool, skin, bones, muscles, fat and horns, as well as completely removing the animal's brain. The tissues are so well preserved that there is hope they could be used to revive the extinct species.

"We are working with a unique find that could be cloned in the future thanks to selected materials," Hwang Woo Suk, a former cloning expert and NEFU collaborator, said in the statement. (Hwang was fired from the University of Seoul National University in South Korea in 2006 and narrowly avoided jail time after faking results and breaking bioethics rules while attempting to clone embryonic human stem cells.)

The researchers want to return to where the bison was found to look for other specimens that could help them revive this lost species. However, not everyone is convinced that ancient bison can be cloned.

"In my view, it is not going to be possible to clone extinct animals from tissues like this," Love Dalén(opens in new tab), a paleogeneticist at Stockholm University in Sweden who was not involved in the necropsy, told Live Science in an email. Although the tissues are exceptionally well preserved, the DNA within them is likely too degraded to be cloned, he added.

link: https://www.livescience.com/scientists-want-to-clone-an-extinct-bison-unearthed-from-siberian-permafrost-experts-are-skeptical