De-extinction scientists say these gene-edited ‘woolly mice’ are a step toward woolly mammoths

“The Colossal woolly mouse marks a watershed moment in our de-extinction mission,” company cofounder Ben Lamm said in a statement. “This success brings us a step closer to our goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth.” Colossal’s researchers say their ultimate goal is not to re-create a woolly mammoth wholesale. Instead, the team is aiming for what they call “functional de-extinction”—creating a mammoth-like elephant that can survive in something like the extinct animal’s habitat and potentially fulfill the role it played in that ecosystem. Shapiro and her colleagues hope that an “Arctic-adapted elephant” might make that ecosystem more resilient to climate change by helping to spread the seeds of plants, for example. But other experts take a more skeptical view. Even if they succeed in creating woolly mammoths, or something close to them, we can’t be certain that the resulting animals will benefit the ecosystem, says Kevin Daly, a paleogeneticist at Trinity College Dublin. “I think t ... Read full article.