Welcome To Pleistocene Park: The Real-Life Resurrection Of Mammoths

Jurassic Park was one of those movies that obsessed me as a child—the idea of a wonderland island in which extinguished creatures resurrected thanks to the marvels of science was something both astonishing and unbelievable.

The Pleistocene Park might not have any tyrannosaurs or velociraptors (perhaps that's a good thing), but an equally fantastic long-lost being: mammoths.

Well not entirely mammoths but mammophants: hybrid elephant–mammoth mix. Quoting an article from The Guardian:

“De-extincting” the mammoth has become a realistic prospect because of revolutionary gene editing techniques that allow the precise selection and insertion of DNA from specimens frozen over millennia in Siberian ice.

Ross Andersen dives us, with help of this rather long yet beautiful text, into the very beginnings of the project.


“It will be cute to have mammoths running around here,” he told me. “But I’m not doing this for them, or for any other animals. I’m not one of these crazy scientists that just wants to make the world green. I am trying to solve the larger problem of climate change. I’m doing this for humans. I’ve got three daughters. I’m doing it for them.”

When this becomes a full reality, like scientist Sergey Zimov says, the project might be one of largest accomplishments in human history. 

Despite the fact of this news not being necessarily recent, I recommend the reading because it not only brings back that inner child, but submerges us and educates us about a highly enthralling and interesting future which, if everything goes out right, we'll have the fortune to witness.