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Russians make new bid to clone woolly mammoth
A woolly mammoth in the St Petersburg Natural History Museum. A number of astonishingly well preserved mammoths have been found in the Siberian permafrost

RUSSIAN boffins are engaged in an ambitious project to bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction in a groundbreaking cloning experiment.

Scientists are searching for and studying cells in the remains of well-preserved ancient animals, exploring the possibility of cloning them after they have become extinct.

Experiments are underway in Yakutia, in the Sakha Republic, which could also see the cloning of extinct cave lions and ancient horses in a joint venture with a team from South Korea and Japan.

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