We'll Meet Mammoth about 4 or 5 Years again!

Mammoth? Its the extinct ancient animal and considered to have a kinship with the elephant, it is likely to be born again next four years. This possibility is the result of breakthrough of the cloning technology.

In the 1990s, scientists have attempted to study the possibility of recovery of heart cells from skin and muscle tissue of mammoths found in Siberia, Russia. However, these efforts failed because the cell nucleus has been badly damaged by extreme cold temperatures.

The science is far from hopeless. In 2008, Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama Development Center for Biology from Japan, RIKEN, technology pioneered cloning mice from cells of other mice that have been frozen for 16 years. The same technology will be applied to mammoths.

Efforts rebirth of extinct animals in about 5,000 years ago will be expanded Professor Akira Iritani from Kyoto University. "Now the technical problem has been resolved. All we need is a good sample of the soft tissue of mammoths frozen," Iritani said as quoted by The Daily Telegraph.

Iritani planning to travel to Siberia to find the remains of mammoths in the form of skin or tissue samples. Iritani just need this sample as small as 3 cm square. If not successful, he plans to ask for a sample of Russian scientists.

Nucleus of cells of skin or muscle tissue mammoths will be inserted into the African elephant egg cell that acts as a parent substitute (surrogate mother). Gestation period is estimated to need about 600 days. Previously, the preparation phase until the African elephant can be impregnated, takes about two years.

"Until now, the success rate in cloning a cow is very small. But, there are probably about 30 percent. I think we have ample opportunities for success and healthy mammoths could be born in four or five years," he said.

Mammoth is a family member elephantidae which is also a family of species that we know today. (National Geographic Indonesia / Raras Cahyafitri),