Thanks to a new analysis of a Woolly Mammoth genome, scientists determined what allowed the animal to survive the last Ice Age.
According to Live Science, authors of a study published in the journal Cell Reports described the gene that represents a significant step toward being able to clone the animal.
"This is by far the most comprehensive study to look at the genetic changes that make a woolly mammoth a woolly mammoth," study lead author Vincent Lynch, an assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, said in a press release. "They are an excellent model to understand how morphological evolution works, because mammoths are so closely related to living elephants, which have none of the traits they had."
From analyzing the genome, the researchers determined the Woolly Mammoth's metabolism was favorable for putting on body fat to stay warm, as well as various physical attributes that allowed it to retain heat. The gene could help scientists infuse some of these characteristics with the Asian elephant.
"We thought we'd just make the changes that are most likely to lead to an animal that looks, behaves and is adaptable to the cold like a mammoth," George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University not involved in the study, told Live Science.
With such a major breakthrough, scientists will no longer be asking if they can resurrect a Woolly Mammoth, but whether or not they should.
"Eventually we'll be technically able to do it. But the question is: if you're technically able to do something, should you do it?" Lynch said in the release. "I personally think no. Mammoths are extinct and the environment in which they lived has changed. There are many animals on the edge of extinction that we should be helping instead."
