CIA to Fund Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Project

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the United States has officially joined the project of Resurrection of extinct pet animals Colossal Biosciences.

Through a venture capital firm called In-Q-Telthe government agency will finance a mission that has become increasingly attractive: recover species such as the mammoth lanudo and the Tasmanian Tiger.

Resurrection

In-Q-Tel It is not a new company, but it has been in existence for more than 20 years, dedicating itself to financing technologies that “strengthen the national security” of the US, according to its website.

Only recently has the firm added to its portfolio its investment in Colossal Biosciences, a company that rose to fame for revealing its intentions to revive the the mammoth lanudo and the thylacine.

The company’s goal is to revive extinct creatures to “support local economies and help reverse the effects of climate change by having a net positive effect on carbon offsetting.” In the case of the mammoth, they were grazing animals that maintained the grasslands in the northern parts of our planet and kept the land below frozen by stepping on grass, felling trees, and packing down snow.

It’s possible?

Science has advanced to the point that DNA extracted from the bones and carcasses of extinct animals can now be sequenced. The case of the mammoth is particular because many of its specimens have remained in a perfect state of conservation due to the fact that they were frozen in icy areas for thousands of years.

However, Colossal’s project involves hybridizing extinct animals with their closest relatives through genetic engineering.

For example, for the Tasmanian TigerScientists hope to build the animal’s complete genomic map and compare it to its closest living relative, fat-tailed dunnart, a mouse-sized, carnivorous marsupial.

After identifying the differences between the two maps, the researchers will edit the dunnart’s DNA at each place where it differs from the thylacine.

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