21st September: A woolly mammoth is similar to an elephant, but with a much larger body and heavier tusks. Before extinction, these massive beasts from the same family as modern elephants roamed the Earth roughly 10,000 years ago. Scientists now want to resurrect them.

A genetics and bioscience startup, Colossal, has raised $15 million to bring the woolly mammoth back to the Arctic tundra. While the idea of resurrecting extinct animals such as woolly mammoths has been discussed for some time, it is just now becoming a reality.

Ben Lamm, a software and Internet entrepreneur, and George Church, a genetics researcher at Harvard Medical School, co-founded Colossally. Scientists hope to construct an elephant-mammoth hybrid in the lab by producing embryos with mammoth DNA. Asian elephant skin cells will be harvested and converted into stem cells with mammoth DNA.

Scientists have recovered a large amount of animal genetic material from permafrost thawing. They plan to utilize these to reconstruct the woolly mammoth by combining DNA from Asian elephants with other features like long hair and layers of fat. The embryos would be permitted to grow in an artificial womb or in the womb of a surrogate mother once they were created. If everything goes according to plan, the first calves will be able to walk again in less than six years.

While this may appear to be a vanity project, it is actually geared at saving Asia’s endangered elephants. Scientists seek to keep elephants on the planet by providing them with superior DNA. They hope that reintroducing woolly mammoths to the Arctic tundra will help to repair ecosystems that have been disturbed.

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