A biotechnology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, has used genetic editing to create laboratory mice built for the cold. Colossal Lab and Biosciences looked to the genetic make-up of extinct woolly mammoths to guide the creation of their new cozy-looking critters, named “Colossal Woolly Mice.” Colossal states that this achievement is a step towards ‘de-extinction’—a process intended to bring extinct species back to life. But the ethical questions around resurrecting species—including the iconic Ice Age woolly mammoth—means that this pursuit requires careful thought.
Colossal researchers used 121 mammoth and elephant genomes as a road map to create their woolly mice. By cross-referencing the DNA of mammoths and their living relatives, the Asian and African elephant, the team was able to identify the genes controlling traits such as hair growth.
With their DNA guide in hand, the researchers modified seven mouse genes so that the animals would display physical characteristics modelled off mammoths. This resulted in laboratory mice with rough, curly hair. The Colossal Woolly Mouse can also thank the woolly mammoth for its honey-blonde tresses; the researchers genetically modified fur colour to resemble the coats found on preserved woolly mammoth mummies.
“The Colossal Woolly Mouse showcases our ability to use the latest genome editing tools and approaches to drive predictable phenotypes,” said Beth Shapiro, the chief science officer at Colossal, in a press release. “It is an important step toward validating our approach to resurrecting traits that have been lost to extinction and that our goal is to restore.”
Prehistoric animals that once roamed Canada
But why the interest in bringing back the woolly mammoth? Colossal argues on its website that the woolly mammoth would be a climate change hero.
Woolly mammoths were key players in the maintenance of Arctic grasslands—an environment that if resurrected alongside the mammoth could help capture carbon and prevent permafrost thaw, the company writes.
For Rebecca Woods, the project lead at the Mammoth History Lab at the University of Toronto, history can help us understand why people are so drawn to resurrecting the woolly mammoth.
Woods, who is also a tenured professor jointly appointed to the University of Toronto’s Department of History and the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, points to the idea of the “sixth extinction” as one of factors pushing people towards de-extinction. The concept is explored in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, where the author argues that Earth is undergoing a sixth human-caused mass extinction.
The dawning realization that humans could drive a species to extinction has been tracked by historians to different moments in time. But the mid- to late-19th century was a major moment for this line of thinking, says Woods.
“Bison were going extinct, the passenger pigeon, whales…all these really populous species that people thought would be abundant no matter what, were starting to disappear,” she says. “People are realizing that they’re not coming back.”
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Woolly mammoths also make good poster-children for de-extinction because they’re an example of a charismatic megafauna: a species that appeals to the public thanks to its size and other charming attributes. But resurrecting the woolly mammoth means grappling with tough questions surrounding the ethics of plunking an Ice Age mammal down into the 21st century.
“We know from research that ecologists have done on elephants that they communicate,” says Woods. “They have intergenerational cultural knowledge. They have complex, emotional cultural lives. They mourn.” If people do succeed and bring the woolly mammoth back, what kind of world would they live in and would kind of lives would they have, she wonders.
The alternative to de-extinction, says Woods, is accepting that we live in compromised environments that cannot be fully remediated. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” she says. “But the way we try should be fully informed by an ethics of justice. And not just for human beings, but for other creatures as well.”
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