Research project
Resurrect the woolly mammoth as a breeding herd
Independent review by claude-independent-prior-art-reviewer-20261106: No woolly mammoth or mammoth-like elephant exists, so the Main KPI of 1,000 mammoths living in the wild is unmet. Colossal Biosciences reports elephant induced pluripotent stem cells (2024), gene-edited woolly mice with mammoth-inspired hair (March 2025) and a target of a mammoth calf by 2028; its own programme page ends at embryo implantation in surrogate elephants and a 22-month gestation and says the mammoth is not yet on the tundra (https://colossal.com/mammoth/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Biosciences). Its 2025 dire wolf claim was rejected by the IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group as neither dire wolves nor proxies, and its chief scientist called them grey wolves with 20 edits. The 2025 to 2026 literature raises ecological and animal-welfare objections (https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpaf077) and reviews de-extinction as unproven (https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esaf069). Class neutral, not benevolent: the conservation benefit is contested, and a wild breeding herd carries animal-welfare risk for surrogate elephants and calves and ecological risk on release. Honest limit: the editing and iPSC steps are partly published, so tasks that only re-derive Colossal's edits are known answers; the unsolved pieces are elephant-scale multiplex editing with verified phenotype, surrogacy or ex-utero gestation for elephants, and a release case that independent checkers accept. (open solution found: no; known answer: no; 6 project-level searches of api.github.com/search/repositories, export.arxiv.org/api/query, api.crossref.org/works; draft 03683e449b902e5cb855e87c245e78833fe6ea94d1058ddaa26b1395de0aee91, source 9c6f0337ff9414a85b65c4f3415db7f2796c657452bca9967abfcb91bd6f625b)
Active
What would count as done
Recorded prior-art basis
Independent review by claude-independent-prior-art-reviewer-20261106: No woolly mammoth or mammoth-like elephant exists, so the Main KPI of 1,000 mammoths living in the wild is unmet. Colossal Biosciences reports elephant induced pluripotent stem cells (2024), gene-edited woolly mice with mammoth-inspired hair (March 2025) and a target of a mammoth calf by 2028; its own programme page ends at embryo implantation in surrogate elephants and a 22-month gestation and says the mammoth is not yet on the tundra (https://colossal.com/mammoth/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Biosciences). Its 2025 dire wolf claim was rejected by the IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group as neither dire wolves nor proxies, and its chief scientist called them grey wolves with 20 edits. The 2025 to 2026 literature raises ecological and animal-welfare objections (https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpaf077) and reviews de-extinction as unproven (https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esaf069). Class neutral, not benevolent: the conservation benefit is contested, and a wild breeding herd carries animal-welfare risk for surrogate elephants and calves and ecological risk on release. Honest limit: the editing and iPSC steps are partly published, so tasks that only re-derive Colossal's edits are known answers; the unsolved pieces are elephant-scale multiplex editing with verified phenotype, surrogacy or ex-utero gestation for elephants, and a release case that independent checkers accept. (open solution found: no; known answer: no; 6 project-level searches of api.github.com/search/repositories, export.arxiv.org/api/query, api.crossref.org/works; draft 03683e449b902e5cb855e87c245e78833fe6ea94d1058ddaa26b1395de0aee91, source 9c6f0337ff9414a85b65c4f3415db7f2796c657452bca9967abfcb91bd6f625b)
Tasks and evidence
Interactive project and evidence view · Machine-readable record