![]() ![]() She admits there are inherent ecosystem risks to these approaches, but maintains they are worth it. Shapiro, a MacArthur Fellow, also points to gene editing technology as a way to insert lost genetic diversity (and therefore increased disease resistance) into small populations of struggling species such as the black-footed ferret. ![]() What if these techniques can be used to engineer Asian elephants capable of living in colder climates, she wonders? “If we could do that,” she says, “then we could expand the range of potential habitat for Asian elephants.” And possibly, she says, save that species from going the way of the mammoth. ![]() And that technology, she says, might be best used to benefit the endangered elephant. Rather, mammoth traits might be engineered into their closest living relative, the Asian elephant. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Shapiro emphasizes that, despite the title of her book, if mammoths are ever brought back, it be won’t be through cloning, which requires a living cell. And in her new book, How To Clone a Mammoth, Shapiro, the associate director of the Paleogenomics Institute at the University of California at Santa Cruz, delves into the many technical hurdles and ethical concerns of attempting to revive extinct species. She’s published on the genetic makeup of woolly mammoths, passenger pigeons, and camels that once roamed North America. ![]() Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro studies ancient DNA. ![]()
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