Scientists Sequence Half the Woolly Mammoth's Genome

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 13:56 in Biology & Nature

Editor's note: This story will appear in our January issue but is being posted early because of a publication in today's Nature.Thousands of years after the last woolly mammoth lumbered across the tundra, scientists have sequenced a whopping 50 percent of the beast’s nuclear genome,  they report in a new study. Earlier attempts to sequence the DNA of these icons of the Ice Age produced only tiny quantities of code. The new work marks the first time that so much of the genetic material of an extinct creature has been retrieved. Not only has the feat provided insight into the evolutionary history of mammoths, but it is a step toward realizing the science-fiction dream of being able to resurrect a long-gone animal. [More]

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