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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: ##RaCeR## on August 21, 2002, 05:53:46 PM
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TOKYO - A group of privately funded Japanese scientists has a mammoth project for Siberia — a safari park they hope might eventually feature a genetic hybrid of the extinct woolly mammals and modern-day elephants.
For several years, the researchers have conducted excavations in Siberia in hopes of finding a frozen specimen well enough preserved in the Siberian tundra for its sperm to be used to impregnate an elephant.
"If everything goes successfully and we have baby mammoths, we don\'t want to keep them at a zoo," Shoji Okutsu, a veterinary expert at Kagoshima University, said Wednesday. "We want them to live in an environment as close as possible to where their ancestors once lived."
That is a big if — so far, no mammoth sperm has been found and there are no guarantees any ever will be.
Even so, the Mammoth Creation Project in 1996 won permission from Russia\'s Sakha region to use a 160-square kilometer (51.5-square mile) preserve near Duvannyi Yar in Siberia should they ever succeed.
The sanctuary won\'t likely be a big tourist attraction — the Siberian preserve is currently accessible only by helicopter, and is not open to the public.
But tigers, giant deer, moose and other Siberian animals believed to have coexisted with woolly mammoths are already there, said Mammoth Creation Society Chairman Kazutoshi Kobayashi.
Kobayashi is president of Field, a technology patenting business that has provided tens of millions of yen (hundreds of thousands of dollars) for the project over the past six years.
So far, veterinary experts from southern Japan\'s Kagoshima University, joined by genetic scientists at Kinki University in western Japan, have searched mainly along the Kolimaya River in western Siberia.
They have found mammoth fossils, including legs, buried under permafrost. But the DNA inside turned out to be damaged over time and by climate changes and was unusable.
The society sent a team of researchers to the area last year, and plans to do so again next summer, Kobayashi said. He said they did not go this month — August is the best time because of the weather — as they are still studying the data collected from their last trip.
Even if mammoths can be reproduced, some experts doubt the plan\'s viability.
Mitsuko Masui, director of Yokohama Zoo, near Tokyo, said simply keeping a mammoth alive is a new challenge since little is known about the animals.
"You can\'t recreate the environment that the mammoths lived in. Can a mammoth really survive in today\'s environment?" Masui said. "I don\'t think they\'ve deliberated that enough."
Establishing a breeding population could be even tougher, Masui said, citing problems zookeepers already have with such non-extinct species as pandas.
The researchers admit they have a long way to go — with the lack of sperm being a major obstacle for now.
But they say their idea is fairly straightforward — by using DNA from frozen sperm to impregnate an elephant, they could produce a half-elephant, half-mammoth offspring. Over several generations, a creature genetically close to the prehistoric one could be created.
"Some people may question the ethics of what we are trying to do, but all we want to do is to make our dream come true," Kobayashi said.
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Sounds like Jurassic Park is kinda plausible.
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If anything..it certainly sounds like a good way to funnel money into personal accounts of those involved in this "sperm hunt"
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How is it possible? You need to find living sperm, and I don\'t think anything can live inside a mammoths frozen nut for millions of years.
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well if it\'s frozen, it should be good. i mean that\'s how they store the sperm at sperm banks, when I go in to make my "deposit"
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yup..what theo said..if its frozen, there is a good chance they will be able to use it.
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I thought sperm dies at certain temperatures, like when you go into a hot tub.
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Originally posted by ViVi
I thought sperm dies at certain temperatures, like when you go into a hot tub.
That\'s what I thought too. Your "sack" shrinks when it\'s cold to keep the sperm warm enough to live, and expands when it\'s hot to keep it cool enough.
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Those elephants have huge penises. I would envy them, but mine\'s just as big.
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Originally posted by ViVi
I thought sperm dies at certain temperatures, like when you go into a hot tub.
So explain why sperm is frozen untill it gets artificially inseminated into a woman?
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This is a mistake..
Sure it all sounds well and good.. but what happens when there\'s an accident at the park and those bastards get loose and start eating the tourists?? It could be a disaster!
God Creates Wooly Mammoths
God Destorys Wooly Mammoths
God Creates Man
Man Destorys God
Man Creates Wooly Mammoths
Wooly Mammoths Eat man...
Where\'s Alan Grant when you need him?? ._.
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Originally posted by ##RaCeR##
Damn, wheres some elephant sperm when you need it!
So you\'re hungry huh?
Ok that was bad :p
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LOL SonyFan :laughing:
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Originally posted by SonyFan
God Destorys Wooly Mammoths
God Creates Man
Shouldn\'t those two be the other way round?
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This reminds me of a joke :D ;
A boy and his mom go to the zoo, they walk up to the elephant. The little boy points at the elephants dong and says "Mommy! What is that?" The mom replies "What the trunk?" The son; "No that big thing in between his legs". The mom smiles and says, "Oh, thats nothing"
The next day the boy goes to the zoo with his dad, they walk up to the elephant. The little boy points at the elphants huge dong and asks " Daddy! What is that thing?" THe dad says "What the trunk?" The son; "No, that big thing in between his legs!" The dad then says, "Why do you care?" Then the son says "Because mommy said it was "nothing"". THe dad laughs and says "Well, lets just say your mom has been very spoiled!"
:D I love that one. I dunno if I already posted it, or someone else did. But anyway.
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yeah read about this the other day... sounds cool. but to be honest doesnt really excite me.. bring on godzilla , now id wanna see that
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Originally posted by kopking
yeah read about this the other day... sounds cool. but to be honest doesnt really excite me.. bring on godzilla , now id wanna see that
:laughing: I said the exact same thing last nite to the bartender at the pub! Freaky! :eek:
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well i was in a pub last nite..... and i talked to a barman on numerous occasions.. and thougth of godzilla.... how freaky is that!!!
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Originally posted by SonyFan
Where\'s Alan Grant when you need him?? ._.
Actually, it was Ian Malcolm :)
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I agree with Sonyfan it would be better just to leave things the way they are, what benfit would bringing mammoths back have for anyone, if anything really muck up the ecosystem if the were wild!=]
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I want them to find some dinosaur sperm.
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^^^
heh, maybe we can convince some of the old guys around here to donate :p
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Hehehe.
Remember that scene in JP where they get sneezed on by that big mo fo of a dino? Well, imagine if you were the scientist trying to get its wad...
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Let\'s just hope the guy could swim
"My god, pull him out he\'s drowing!!!"
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Remember that scene in JP where they get sneezed on by that big mo fo of a dino? Well, imagine if you were the scientist trying to get its wad...- ##RaCeR##
Why is it that for some reason I can Tom Greene applying for that job...
"Look Mr. Hammond! I\'m a Farmer! I\'m a FAAAARRRRMERRR!" *Furiously beats off a T-Rex*
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Hehehe, Tom Green is the bomb. I loved him in Road Trip.