Frozen Wooly Mammoth Arrives in Japan

[karyn]

from my way

TOKYO (AP) - World fairs have typically focused on the wonders of the future, highlighting new technologies from glass and steel construction in the 19th century to satellites and computers today. But next year's fair is different.

The Japanese organizers of the 2005 world's fair have shipped a 18,000-year-old frozen woolly mammoth from Siberia to become the centerpiece attraction.

Naoki Suzuki, the Japanese scientist overseeing the Aichi Expo exhibit, said Friday the preserved head, tusks and front leg of the mammoth have arrived in Nagoya near the fair site, about 170 miles west of Tokyo.

Experts say the mammoth head, dug up earlier this year, is the most intact specimen of its kind recovered in 200 years. Scientists will conduct tests in a laboratory with a gallery so visitors can watch.

Preliminary tests suggest the bull mammoth lumbered across the prehistoric Siberian plains at more than 9 feet tall, weighing as much as 5 tons, Suzuki said. It was probably between 40 and 45 years old when it died.

His team hopes a battery of planned tests will help unravel the mystery of why mammoths became extinct some 10,000 years ago.

They will use advanced X-rays to peer inside the mammoth's head and generate a 3-D map of its brain; study muscle tissue to determine how mammoths walked; look at rocks and pollen caught in its fur; cut into the tusks to determine what it ate and whether it was ill; and take DNA samples to answer questions about diseases and viruses.

Mammoths first appeared in Africa as long as 4 million years ago, and they roamed the plains of Siberia for nearly 2 million years before suddenly dying off. Scientists remain divided over the cause of the mammoths' extinction, with theories pointing at human hunters, a killer disease or climate change.

For more than two centuries, mammoth remains have been turning up in the Russian tundra above the Arctic Circle. The Expo's mammoth was excavated north of the town of Yakutsk, about 3,100 miles east of Moscow.

Japanese researchers have for years been searching for mammoth remains in Siberia in a separate project aimed at someday making a clone. So far, no DNA samples have been suitable for such an attempt.

[BrightStar]

It would be awesome if the Brought back all those prehistoric animals.

Even though it would be dangerous and deadly , It would be kind of cool .

[hewhoisagod]

It would be awesome if the Brought back all those prehistoric animals.

Even though it would be dangerous and deadly , It would be kind of cool .

In some ways, I agree with you. But I believe that if the animal is extinct, it should still be that way. Yeah it sucks when a species disappears, but it's a fact of life. But yes it would be cool to see these things as not bones but living beings.

[karyn]

i agree with brightstar. i wish i could choose the extinction of many things currently thriving, but mammoths just seem kind of cool.

[MistressJennifer]

Slap it in the microwave, add a little ketchup, voila! A gourmet meal!

[Morning Glory]

who's to say what would be unethical in this case? especailly if it was humans that cuased the extinction of the animal in the first place, I think it's kind of our duty to try and preserve a species since we are the one's that fuck them all up. like you're saying that we should just let tigers and panda bears and stuff become extinct because us destroying all thier natural habitat is just "natural evolution" or whatever BS, despite the fact that we have the technological capacity to save them?

[Morning Glory]

plus even if we were able to clone some long extinct species like the mammoth it would still be that there numbers would be less than some endangered species of today, so I don't really see it being a habitat conflict, it's not like we'd want to create a million mamoths and fill up siberia with them, there'd be no point.

[SindelChaos]

Yay, Barney eats everyone! Pet Snuffleufagususususussses... (spelling) Ride your Wooly Mammoth to school. Put curlers in its hair. Use it as a coat rack.
Velocirapter fighting is the new cock fighting no ankle spurs needed! To quote Jurassic Park. "It's like The Pirates of the Caribbean ride broke down at Disneyland. Only when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride breaks down the pirates don't eat the tourists." or something like that. Dinosaurs kick major ass! Prehistoric life is awesome. Why couldn't they find an intact T-rex that preserved itself in a tar pit!! Or or... one of those Megasaurs that were discovered to be twice the size of the T-rex and twice as brutal. Then we could put like mind controlling armor/machines on them and play Dino Riders!! Sorry I'm going off on something else. I'd LOVE to go see that mammoth though.

[SindelChaos]

Slap it in the microwave, add a little ketchup, voila! A gourmet meal!

Boy, you must really like steak....in all shapes and forms...10,000 year old hairy microwavable caveman steak....ew

[BrightStar]

a pit fight with a Velociraptor would be fun, even if dangerous.

[SindelChaos]

a pit fight with a Velociraptor would be fun, even if dangerous.

They're not so tough without the other 20 in their group coming around in a circle to kick your ass.

Kangaroo boxers vs. Velociraptor
Animal Rights Activists (with meat tied to their bodies and a bone knife) vs. Velociraptor
Gun Protestors(with gun) vs. Velociraptor (if they use it they get their protestor label removed, their pride hurt, and a phone call to their parents instructing them to love them less!)
George Bush(with oil drum) vs Velociraptor
Avril Lavigne (with children's kareoke box) vs. Velociraptor

or hell, we could do it Battle Royale style. Put a group of extremely annoying people on an island, put collars around their necks, and leave them there with a pack of Velociraptors...only all of them are supposed to die. Then, we will reward the Velociraptors with their freedom and lifetime pension at the BarbieLand Estate aka Beverly Hills!