Genome sequence could bring woolly mammoth back to life

WASHINGTON: Researchers have sequenced the gene map of a long-extinct, mummified woolly mammoth, using DNA taken from its hair.

The sequence shows that mammoths were more closely related to modern, living elephants than previously thought, and they found some elements, such as evidence of inbreeding, that may shed light on why the giant creatures went extinct, the researchers reported on Wednesday.

And it shows that it is possible to reconstruct the genomes of extinct creatures, they reported in the journal Nature.