It has been more than 4,000 years since the last woolly mammoth vanished from the face of the Earth.
But if one group of scientists is right, it may be less than four years before these gentle giants walk the plains of North America once again.
Ben Lamm, CEO and founder of Colossal Biosciences, now says he’s ‘positive’ the first woolly mammoth calves will be born by late 2028.
However, introducing any species into the wild is risky and Mr Lamm says that even his scientists can’t be 100 per cent sure what will happen when mammoths return.
MailOnline sat down with Mr Lamm to ask him why his Jurassic Park-like plan matters, and why he’s so sure it’s a good idea.
Although the woolly mammoth has been extinct for over 4,000 years, there are enough traces of its DNA for scientists to sequence the entire mammoth genome
Unlike in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film Jurassic Park, Mr Lamm says that his goal is to release wild populations of mammoths to improve the world’s biodiversity. Although, he says even his scientists can’t be 100 per cent sure what the effects will be
How do you de-extinct a woolly mammoth?
‘I like to think of what we’re doing like reverse Jurassic Park,’ Mr Lamm told MailOnline.
In the classic films, scientists bring back dinosaurs by recovering ancient DNA frozen within amber before using genes taken from frogs to patch the holes in the dino DNA.
But, unlike those fictional scientists, the researchers at Colossal Biosciences are actually working backwards.
Mr Lamm says: ‘We’re not taking mammoth DNA and plugging in the holes, we’re trying to engineer the lost genes from mammoths into Asian elephants.’
Ben Lamm (pictured), CEO and founder of Colossal Biosciences, told MailOnline that the first woolly mammoth calves will be born in late 2028
Mammoth de-extinction uses a process Mr Lamm describes as ‘reverse Jurassic Park’. Genes from ancient mammoth DNA are combined with DNA from an Asian Elephant to create hybrid stem cells which can be used to create woolly mammoth embryos
Asian elephants share 95 per cent of their genome with woolly mammoths and are actually more closely related to these extinct giants than they are to African elephants.
By understanding exactly how woolly mammoths are different from their closest living relatives, the scientists at Colossal Biosciences say they have identified several ‘target genes’.
These genes are essentially the differences in biological programming which determine if an organism becomes an elephant or a woolly mammoth.
Thanks to advances in gene editing techniques like CRISPR, scientists can now take those target genes and plug them directly into the DNA of modern elephants.
For example, they can take the ancient gene which makes mammoths produce their woolly coats and give that gene to an Asian Elephant.
Mr Lamm says: ‘You can think of DNA being like a twisted ladder with each little rung being a base pair.
‘We are able to change each rung of the ladder, but now we also have the ability to engineer new pieces of the ladder that we want to be there.’
The resulting elephant-mammoth hybrid DNA can then be used to create ‘pluripotent stem cells’ – a type of cell which has the potential to become any tissue.
These cells are then coaxed into becoming sperm, eggs, or even viable embryos containing the genetic programming to become a mammoth.
Scientists hope to take these artificial embryos and insert them into Asian elephants to raise them to term, eventually giving birth to a living woolly mammoth.
Around 52,000 years ago, a woolly mammoth happened to be freeze-dried by the weather just after it died, preserving its DNA in a glass-like state. The unusually well-preserved specimen was excavated in northeastern Siberia in 2018, allowing a team of international scientists to analyse its skin tissue
Asian elephants share 95 per cent of their DNA with woolly mammoths. The researchers believe they can use this similarity to engineer mammoth-elephant hybrids which will be adapted to the cold
Ben Lamm says this same technique will allow Colossal Biosciences to restore the Dodo (illustrated) and Tasmanian Tiger
When will the first woolly mammoth be born?
‘We’ve set one timeline which is late 2028 for the first mammoth calves and we are currently on track for that,’ says Mr Lamm.
Although the project has proven challenging, Mr Lamm says he feels ‘positive’ that the company will hit its self-imposed deadline.
The company has already sequenced a mammoth genome and found a way to produce pluripotent elephant stem cells.
All that remains is the gene editing process to add the targeted mammoth genes into elephant DNA.
Ben Lamm says he is ‘positive’ that the first woolly mammoth calves will be born in late 2028
However, Mr Lamm told MailOnline that the woolly mammoth might not be the first creature to be brought back from extinction.
The company is also attempting to bring back the Dodo, which was driven to extinction in the 1600s, as well as the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine.
Since Tasmanian Tigers and Dodos have much shorter gestation periods, their path back from the brink might be considerably quicker.
Mr Lamm won’t say which of the extinct creatures will be the first to return but adds: ‘I don’t know if mammoth will be the first project to be completed’.
The mammoth may not be the first creature to return from de-extinction as the Dodo and Tasmanian tiger reproduce much faster
What will you do with these mammoths?
Mr Lamm says: ‘It’s funny, people sometimes ask: “What are you going to do when you get to the end and you birth a mammoth?”.
‘But we’re just in the prelude, we’re not even at chapter one yet. The work starts once we have them.
‘Our goal, in true success, is creating genetically diverse, interbreedable herds that can build sustainable populations in the wild.’
In fact, Mr Lamm’s vision for Colossal Biosciences has a lot more to do with modern conservationists releasing beavers in the UK than it does with Jurassic Park.
Mr Lamm says his eventual goal is to reintroduce self-sustaining, interbreeding populations of mammoths into the wild
‘I see all these projects as rewilding projects,’ says Mr Lamm.
Of course, releasing any animal into the wilderness requires a lot of land – something which Mr Lamm says has been surprisingly difficult to secure.
Mr Lamm told MailOnline that the company has ‘had some early conversations’ with northern states in America including Alaska, as well as Canada for potential mammoth sites.
Likewise, the company is in the process of identifying locations to release dodos on Mauritius and thylacines in Tasmania.
However, Mr Lamm says we will have to wait until later next year for the final confirmation of the first de-extinction sites.
Mr Lamm says that the company is in discussions with authorities on Mauritius to reintroduce the Dodo to its natural habitat on the island
How can you be sure this is safe?
No one is genuinely concerned that rampaging mammoths and dodos are going to start attacking tourists, but that doesn’t mean that Colossal Biosciences projects are risk-free.
It has been over 5,000 years since the last mammoths disappeared from North America, and in that time the environment has become a very different place.
Introducing any new species to the environment has the potential to upset the balance of the ecosystem and we have no evidence about what happens when long-extinct species are restored.
And with concerns growing over the risks of invasive species, it is natural to wonder whether bringing back mammoths is really safe for the ecosystem.
When asked about these concerns, Mr Lamm told MailOnline: ‘We have to have the data, and that has to be thoughtfully collected and measured.
‘But ultimately some of that is still modelling and I can’t, with a clear conscience, say that any modelling by scientists affiliated with Colossal or not can give you 100 per cent accuracy.’
Unlike Jurassic Park (pictured), the concern is not that the animals will start attacking tourists but rather that introducing a new species to the ecosystem could cause environmental disruption
However, Mr Lamm insists he is not concerned in any way about the risks of re-introducing large mammals such as the woolly mammoth.
He says: ‘I think that what we can do is look at proxies for our rewilding and see how they work.’
For example, Mr Lamm points to the reintroduction of bison in the Yellowstone National Park and in the UK.
Studies have found that reintroducing native megafauna leads to a sustained improvement in biodiversity.
Based on these encouraging results, Mr Lamm says he believes bringing back woolly mammoths is likely to have a similarly positive effect.
Mr Lamm says: ‘We feel confident that, in general, a more diverse ecosystem is a better ecosystem.’
Mr Lamm insists he is confident that introducing mammoths is safe, pointing to the successful reintroduction of large mammals such as bison into areas like Kent (pictured) and Yellowstone National Park
Why bring the mammoth back?
Mr Lamm says that the motivation for bringing these iconic creatures back from extinction is partially about ‘undoing the sins of the past’.
‘All the data suggests that early anthropological pressures from early humans drove mammoths to extinction – we eradicated these species,’ Mr Lamm says.
Although humans’ role in the extinction of the mammoth is not as clear-cut as Mr Lamm suggests, the same cannot be said about the Dodo and Thylacine.
These two creatures were totally destroyed in an extremely short space of time through a combination of overhunting and habitat destruction.
If scientists can return them to their natural habits, it might be a first step towards righting some of humanity’s most obvious environmental wrongs.
However, the focus of Colossal Biosciences is not entirely on the past.
‘There are huge opportunities to turn our attention to conservation because, if you can build these systems to work with ancient DNA, working with non-ancient DNA is much easier,’ Mr Lamm explained.
The company, already valued at £1.3bn ($1.7bn) has now raised an additional £38 million ($50m) to start the Colossal Foundation dedicated to supporting conservation.
Faced with the ongoing threats to biodiversity, Mr Lamm says he believes humanity needs a ‘de-extinction tool kit’.
Mr Lamm says: ‘Species preservation is a systems problem, it’s no different to software and, kind of like software, you need to back up all the species.’
Mr Lamm says that the motivation for bringing back creatures like the Tasmanian tiger (pictured) is to undo ‘the sins of the past’ and restore animals which humans had previously wiped out
The technology developed to restore mammoths is also being used to improve conservation and the company is working to create a new breeding population from the DNA of the two remaining Northern White Rhino
In Mr Lamm’s view, the true goal of Colossal Biosciences is to build up an archive of genetic samples and techniques to ensure that no species ever needs to be permanently extinct.
The company is already trying to use the techniques developed on woolly mammoths to preserve the Northern White Rhino of which only two individuals remain.
Mr Lamm believes that the company could create a self-sustaining breeding population of rhinos using nothing more than the few remaining genetic samples.
He concludes: ‘I don’t think Jurassic Park had the right conservation perspective.
‘This isn’t just about preserving genetics, it’s about preserving it in a way that you can leverage to increase genetic diversity.’
