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Weekly Online LessonOnline Lesson ArchivesGrade Level: 6-10
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A Mammoth Excavation
On October 18, 1999,
a giant Russian helicopter lifted a 23-ton block of
concrete-like permafrost containing the preserved remains
of a woolly mammoth and transported it 150 miles to an
ice cave in Khatanga. There a team of scientists led by
French explorer Bernard Buigues will study the long-extinct
animal, officially named Jarkov after the family that
discovered him.
The opportunity to study the perfectly-preserved, intact remains of a prehistoric animal is compelling enough, but given recent advances in cloning technology, some scientists are optimistic about the real possibility of extracting mammoth DNA to bring the species back to life.
There are more than a few skeptics. Alexei Tikhonov, a
Russian scientist who helped excavate a 
woolly
mammoth from the tundra earlier this month, says that
cloning the animal is nothing more than a pipe dream.
"You have to have a living cell for cloning, and not
a single cell can survive in the permafrost."
Will the research team find the intact DNA samples they need to produce a Jarkov clone (an exact living replica), or will they find that all the viable DNA from the animal has deteriorated over the past 20,000 years. We'll find out in a few years. For now you can learn more about woolly mammoths and the controversial science of cloning.
The Jarkov Mammoth
Excavation of the Jarkov mammoth was paid for in part by The Discovery Channel, which will air a documentary about the mammoth sometime in the spring of 2000. That doesn't mean you have to wait until then to learn about this exciting scientific undertaking. Go to the Discovery Channel Online and visit the report called Raising the Mammoth. Read the introductory paragraphs and then click Clues on a Dead Mammoth. For this interactive page, roll your mouse around the mammoth to see what researchers will be looking for on the Jarkov mammoth. Which of these clues do you think are most likely to yield answers? Do you know the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon? To find out click Mammoth vs. Mastodon and take the interactive quiz.
This
scientific encounter with a mammoth is not the first by
any stretch. Actually man has been meeting up with with
woolly mammoths and mastodons since they shared the earth
10,000 years ago. Go to Great
Mammoth Discoveries to learn the chronology
of man meeting mammoth. Who was Baby Dima and what did
American researchers discover from him?
Can the Jarkov mammoth be cloned? Click Can One be Cloned? to find out if scientists can really pull it off and what it's going to take.
If you have RealVideo installed, footage of the excavation, return to the Main page and see the flight. Choose 28.8K Real or 56K Real depending on your Internet connection speed. Another video clip about the project is at ABC News.
More on Mammoths
Begin your research of mammoths at Mammuthus: The migration will begin . . . (click Enter Mammuthus to open the site). Start with the Overview to learn basic facts, and click Timeline to learn the evolution of the elephant — roll your mouse over each name to see a picture. Click Extinction to get a few ideas about what happened to the mammoth, and click Fossil Finds to learn about a few of the places in the world where mammoths have been discovered.
Researchers obviously have much to learn
about the prehistoric mammoth, but there is a lot we
already know. Continue your research by visiting the
American Museum of Natural History's BioBulletin
site; click the feature called What
Killed the Mammoths? There are five topics
in this report, all of which have videos to watch — look
for them. Investigate any of the topics you want, but pay
particular attention to More
on Mammoths. There are 14 slides (pages) on
this topic; scroll through them by clicking the black
triangle at the bottom of each page. See if you can find
answers to these questions: How tall was the North
American imperial mammoth? Why were mammoth ears small?
How much food did a mammoth need to eat each day? How are
mammoths related to modern elephants?
There's still more to learn at the Heritage Project Woolly Mammoth page, and at Archaeology Online's Virtual Mammoth project. The latter features special educational material for grades 7-9 that are worth checking out.
About Cloning
Now that you know more about these
incredible creatures, you probably want to know if all
this Jurassic Park stuff about bringing back
extinct animals can really happen. It's really a two-part
question. Can scientists clone an animal that has been
frozen for thousands of years? The answer is, we don't
know yet. Can scientists clone any animals? Yes, they
have successfully cloned mice, frogs, sheep and cows. How
do they do it? Find out by studying the World Book report
Cloning:
Are Humans Next? Read the introduction and
then read the topics listed on the right. Read What
is a Clone? for answers to basic genetic
questions, Early
Scientific Attempts at Cloning to learn the
scientific foundations of cloning, and Cloning
Breakthroughs Since 1996 to learn what has
been achieved in the last several years. Are there
ethical concerns about cloning? You bet! Read Ethical
Concerns to learn about the issues in this
unprecedented debate and study the issues at the bottom
of the page.
Now
visit the excellent Time Online report Slouching
Towards Creation and investigate the four
topics. Start with Dolly:
An Unsettling Breakthrough. Who is Dr. Ian
Wilmut and why was his cloning unlike anything that had
been accomplished before? To learn what they did,
continue on to Cloning
1-2-3: Making a Ewe. When you get to the
step-by-step graphics, click the Audio button to hear an
explanation of what you're seeing. What does the future
hold? Nobody knows, but that never stopped Hollywood from
guessing. Click Future
to see how cloning has been portrayed in entertainment.
Finally, continue on to Ethics
to consider views about cloning or not cloning. What do
you think? Should researchers press ahead and break new
scientific ground or should they slow down and think more
about what they're doing? Should they try to bring back
the mammoth if they can?
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Learners Online, Inc.