Hopes of reviving the woolly mammoth have moved a step closer.
Scientists are getting closer to reviving the woolly mammoth
The US biotech company Colossal Biosciences has announced a breakthrough in efforts to recreate the extinct beasts that could also help to preserve modern elephants.
DNA has been extracted from mammoth carcasses preserved in the Siberian permafrost shows that they are closely related to present-day Asian elephants.
Colossal Biosciences founder George Church, a Harvard genetics professor, plans to alter the DNA of an Asian elephant to introduce mammoth characteristics.
The company believes that the ultimate goal of conceiving a genetically-edited mammoth-like creature could become a reality by 2028.
Church told The Times newspaper: "We're aiming for cold-resistant Asian elephants using a few de-extinct mammoth genes.
"The Asian elephant and mammoth are very closely related, and closer to each other than to the African elephant. Many elephant species have hybridised in the past."