In 2008 a Japanese scientist called Teruhiko Wakatama successfully cloned a frozen mouse that had been dead for over 16 years. Using new techniques he took the DNA from the frozen mouse and DNA from a living mouse and created a partially viable embryo, then used the DNA from the embryonic cell to create clones of the frozen mouse.

Taking this new found method of extracting and merging DNA from a frozen/dead creature and a living relative of that creature, Japanese scientist Akira Iritani and his team will try to recreate what other teams of scientists before him have failed to do, Clone a Woolly Mammoth.

Iritani claims that he and his team will achieve this goal within 6 years, the team is aptly named 'The Mammoth Creation Project' comprising of scientists from the US, Russia and Japan along with the breakthrough research of Wakatama and his team, this target dose not sceme so ridiculous.

The problem that other teams have faced over the past decade is that frost damage makes the DNA in most Mammoth specimens 'Mostly worthless'. With the new advance in cloning The Mammoth Creation Project have already asked zoos from around the world to donate the eggs of African elephants after they die.

Breaking down the timeframe specified by Iritani we can see that 6 years is a fairly achievable goal. This Timeframe gives the team a few years to find 'suitable' frozen Mammoth DNA, adapt the techniques of Wakayama's experiment and the 600 day gestation period of the African elephant, Easy Right?

So, if all goes according to plan we could be seeing the birth of a species that has been extinct for over 12,000 Years.