Woolly Mammoths are going to walk the earth again and I am so excited!
Fluffy elephants ! Baby fluffy elephants!
Squeee!
Hello and welcome back to inform overload.
You have no idea how many times I almost accidentally call the channel inform OVERLORD … It is
like basically every time I say it.
INFORM OVERLORD.
I like the idea of being an overlord for informing.
I feel like that is the secret real name of the channel!
ANYWAY I am your host Rebecca Felgate, covering the news for today…if you have seen me before
say hi…if not….
Well… hi!
Today I am talking about Wolly Mammoths and if you cant tell I am excited.
I am going to tell you all about them and some ground breaking science, but before I
do that, I want to ask you what your favourite animal is in the comments section down below.
Mine is absolutely definitely dogs.
Shout out to the best black Labrador in the world, Mr Bracken, closely followed by Molly
Burke’s dog gallop ! Let me know your favourite in the comments and do leave a thumbs up to
show us you like our videos.
Also check out the links to our Instagram’s in the description box.
OKAY Woolly Mammoths!
So Woolly Mammoths by and large died out 10,000 years ago, although there were a few that
lived up until 3,600 years ago.
The civilized human race has no idea what living among Woolly Mammoths would be like.
As global warming takes hold, we are finding more and more preserved animal carcasses under
ice, especially in the melting permafrost regions of Siberia.
For those of you who watch most amazing top 10 you will know that I love me some Permafrost
chat!
In 2010, a 39,000-year-old carcas of a Woolly Mammoth was found in Siberia, Russia.
Scientists called the young female Yuka, a common girls name in Japan.
Yuka was amazingly well preserved and Scientists were able to determine that she would have
been between 6 – 11 years old at the time of her death, so not fully grown.
In fact, Yuka was the best preserved mammoth in the history of paleontology - researchers
even found blood in her veins, so were hopeful that perhaps they could grab a strand of her
DNA.
So if this mammoth was found in 2010, why are we talking about it ten years later?
Well, as science and technology moves on, it seems we may actually be able to use Yuka
to bring back Woolly Mammoths!
Studies are being carried out by Kindai University in Osaka, Japan along with a team in Russia
who are working on something called somatic cell nuclear transfer, which is a cutting
edge cloning technology.
Scientists famously cloned a sheep and generated Dolly – the first cloned mammal from an
adult somatic cell.
This was also done via nuclear transfer too.
Dolly was generated in Scotland in 1996 and died in 2003, not quite enjoying the normal
10-12 years of life that would be expected of a sheep.
If YUKA the Wooly Mammoth is cloned then it would be the biggest cloning achievement to
date, also quite literally as Woolly mammoths grow between 11 – 15 feet in height – so
up to four and a half metres high!
That is pretty massive – although pretty comparable to modern day African Elephants….
But fluffy!
While we possibly could bring the Wolly Mammoths back, should we?
In their day Woolly Mammoths lived in the arctic and died out when they were over hunted
by humans and badly adapted to their changing environment.
If we did bring them back, there is no saying if they would survive – earth conditions
today are very different than those they were living in – our air has changed – t hey
may be susceptible to modern disease and, as we mentioned, the permafrost is melting
so it might not be cold enough for them anyway!
Wouldn’t it be a bad thing to bring them back if they have no chance of survival?
Well….
I suppose those ethical questions are something Sceientists have to face and plays into the
age old debate of – just because scientists can do something, does it mean that they should?
I personally am pro science and very pro innovation and experimentation for the betterment of
society, but I wouldn’t want them to bring something back just for it to suffer.
What do you think?
Let me know your thoughts on this on the comments section down below.
I think it is a really interesting discussion.
Also, where does it end?
If Scientists bring back the Woolly Mammoth, what will be next?
Will humans one day bring back an apex predator, like the titanoboa or something….
A yuuuge giant snake and then wish they hadn’t?!
It is all very Fantastic Beasts, isn’t it!
Again, do share your thoughs!
Okay so that is all I have on this story.
As of yet we don’t have a time frame on the return of the Woolly mammoth – but we
know it is in the pipeline, which is pretty cool.
Before I go I want to read some of your comments from a previous video because we love all
of you beautiful potatoes and love reading what you have to say….
Charlotte did a video about a man swallowed by a whale…which is pretty biblical isn’t
it… likely, the diver survived, but how incredible was that footage?
Puppy Gaming said: What a pleasant story!
I love the pleasant news stories io tells.
Thanks!
Ashley Lopez said: The wAs was probably like “this is wayyy to small I need a bigger
snack” and then left him alone Nic Vonza said: Charlotte is the kind of person
to go try this herself.
Well…. if you were wondering why she wasn’t here today….. haha!
She live a in a whale now.
Just joking… she will be back later.
Probably.
OKAY that is all we have time for – comments on Woolly mammoths….
Like…share etc!