For a 10 second Quicktime movie (.mov) of me throwing a dart with an atlatl or spearthrower (200k in size) click here or for a better 307k .mov file Click here. For a larger format (320 x 280 pixels and 335k) movie Click here. This requires a Quicktime viewer.
Virtual Tour of The Mammoth Site (Hot Springs, SD - KLC's 25 photo slide show)
Mammoths could run at 18 mph. Hmmm...Can you?
Q: Is cloning using the nucleus of an extinct megafauna species biologically possible? With the recovery of mastodon meat at Monte Verde, Chile from a peat bog and the freezing of mammoths in the arctic, would it not be possible with the new sheep cloning technique of transplanting the nucleus of a cell into a new cell to make a clone using a modern elephant to bear the resulting mammoth embryo? Unlike the partial strands of DNA for the Neandertal there are lots of well preserved samples of mastodon and mammoth meat.1.CELL AVAILABILITY: Among the many freeze dried mammoths from Russia on display a few years back at the Mall of America was a complete juvenile specimen - skin, hair and all. That one juvenile alone represents trillions of somatic cells. The amount of mammoth material still in Siberia, Wrangle Island, tar pits, peat bogs, basements of Universities, etc. around the world must be in the hundreds of tons. Wouldn't there be a preserved and intact cell nucleus that could be cloned from? 2.DIFFERENTIATION: The recent sheep cloning research surprisingly seemed to require starving the cell before it would differentiate. 3.ELEPHANT AVAILABILITY: Many fertile female African elephants are being killed right now because of population growth (i.e.human encroachment) and there is even an unfortunate request to start re-selling their ivory by several African countries because they desperately need money. 4.TECHNOLOGY AVAILABILITY: All I know is that there is a brand new 4 story biomedical lab building (half the size of a city block) across the street from my office window full of people and equipment doing lab research. The biomedical research field would appear to be well funded. 5.FINANCING: The financial profits from both Jurassic Park and The Lost World can only be described as somewhere between huge and astronomical and Disney has expanded into Japan and France. Is it possible? I don't know. What do you think?
Mammoth Tooth and Clovis Point
Atlatls and Clovis Points were used to hunt extinct megafauna like the Mammoth.
Kevin Callahan and Eric Bangs demonstrating the atlatl near the Mississppi River, University of Minnesota, March 27,1997.
Links to other sites on the Web
Atlatls or Spearthrowers in Prehistoric Minnesota (By Kevin Callahan)
© 1997 call0031@tc.umn.edu
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