Biologists say they may be able to clone a woolly mammoth

Scientists plan to use bone marrow from from a mammoth that died 23,000 years ago and egg cells from an elephant to clone a mammoth within five years.

Biologists are saying they may be able to clone a woolly mammoth from bone marrow extracted from a well preserved thigh bone recovered from permafrost soil in Siberia. The thigh bone found in August came from a mammoth that died 23,000 years ago.

A Team of Russian scientists from Sakha Republic mammoth museum and Japan's Kinki University have decided to do joint research on the possibility of bringing the giant ice age mammal back to life. The scientists will be using modern nuclei transplant techniques in their project. Mammoths, according to experts, have been extinct for 5,000-10,000 years.

According to Daily Mail, the scientists plan to replace the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with nuclei material taken from the marrow cells of the mammoth thigh bone. The scientists believe that with this procedure, they might be able to produce embryos with mammoth DNA which may be implanted into a female elephant for gestation. AFP reports scientists expect the procedure to succeed because elephants and mammoths are closely related species.