Japanese cloning experts were successful in cloning a mouse that has been dead for 15 years, and that the new animal turned out fine. It was even able to reproduce with another female rat, which gave researchers a field day, seeing how this step in science could bring forth a cloning “revolution.” The cell that the team used was stored for all these years in an environment with a constant temperature of about -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Because this temperature is almost identical to the one frozen ground has, cloning experts are confident that they can find a mammoth cell that was preserved since the last Ice Age. Such a huge breakthrough in the field of genetics has the international scientific community buzzing with excitement, as the new experiment proved that not only living animals can be cloned, but dead ones as well.
Current estimates place the potential number of dead mammoths under Siberian soil at about 10,000, so the odds of scientists finding a good cell are pretty good. The main problem for cloning the large beast is not a good cell though, but rather a host to plant the cell in. The mouse was “resurrected” when his cell was inserted into a female mouse and developed there.
