This news release talks about two separate genetic analyses carried out on a 28,000 year-old Siberian mammoth preserved in permafrost. One studied mitochondrial DNA while the other studied DNA from the cell nucleus. The researchers using mitochondrial DNA found that "...the woolly mammoth was more closely related to the Asian than the African elephant, but that the divergence between the three occurred over a short time." Those using nuclear DNA say that "... their work showed the mammoth's nuclear DNA was 98.5 percent identical to nuclear DNA from an African elephant."
The release treats these as mutually exclusive positions, but not enough information is provided to tell if this is strictly true - very frustrating! I guess we will see when the articles come out and we can compare them.
But it is very good news that we have good genetic material retrievable from frozen mammoths and that scientists are making good use of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment