Comments from Dr. Dan Fisher on THE MAMMOTH

Updated Saturday, April 12, 2008: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24049244/

Baby mammoth reveals ancient secrets

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080410/sc_nm/russia_mammoth_dc;_ylt=AndEYZnbyM2llAJWw7p0N00PLBIF

"Lyuba" gives scientists glimpse of mammoth insides

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyuba

Lyuba

Updated Saturday, March 22, 2008: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080318214854.htm

Cause Of Death Of Russian Baby Mammoth Discovered

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth

Mammuthus

We Recently Contacted Dr. Daniel Fisher...

(Curator, Department of Paleontology, University of Michigan) and congratulated him on his work on the almost-perfectly preserved Siberian Baby Mammoth. (Photo credit: bgpparsons, July 2007).

Naturally, we asked Dr. Fisher if the baby mammoth material was suitable for cloning. Dr. Fisher was very kind to us and responded with these comments:
"There certainly will be papers written reporting work on this specimen, but that’s still some months or more down the line. At present, we have been able to learn only the information we can get from the exterior of the specimen, and we will not do anything more until after CT-scanning. The specimen almost certainly contains DNA that can be sequenced, but cloning is a much more difficult proposition, as you are no doubt aware. Some work along these lines will likely be done, but how far we will get is a completely open question at present. Some images of this new mammoth are available online through some of the Internet coverage of the discovery, and a few additional pictures can be found on the University of Michigan news archive. If you navigate to the UM press release, then click on the first image, you’ll get to a larger version of that and several more. I’m the guy with the white (or almost so) beard in these photos. Best regards, Dan Fisher".

The baby mammoth is almost perfectly preserved except for missing hair, the tail and part of the right earlobe.

For the story from the University of Michigan website click on: U-M paleontologist part of international team studying remarkably well-preserved baby Siberian mammoth.

And for some of their mammoth photos click here.

Updated Saturday, September 29, 2007: See also: Mammoth hair produces DNA bounty
Updated Saturday, December 29, 2007: Ancient mammoth carcass arrives in Japan