The American company is in the process of recreating wool mummies

The wool mummies, which became extinct 4,000 years ago, have set foot back in Arctic soil, and the American company Colossus, which launched on Monday, is trying to meet the challenge with the help of genetic manipulation techniques. “Colossal will be the first company to launch a practical and efficient model of extinction and use advanced genetic modification techniques to re-integrate wool manure into the Arctic tundra”, The company says in a statement.

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The notion of extinction, the creation of an animal like an extinct organism using genes, is not unanimous in the scientific community, and some researchers doubt its potential or worry about the dangers of its use. Developed by entrepreneur Ben Lam and geneticist George Church, Colossal wants to add DNA sequences to wool mummies collected from preserved remains in Siberian soil to create an ethnic hybrid.

Asian elephants and woolly mummies have 99.6% identical DNA, Colossal points out on its website. The creation of these hybrid backyards should then be allowed to reintroduce into the tundra “Recover lost ecosystems that can help stop or change the effects of climate change”, The company promises. Genetically modified wool mummies can be especially “Update Arctic Meadows”, Which captures carbon dioxide and removes methane, two greenhouse gases, Colossal says.

Biotech has been able to raise $ 15 million in private funds to achieve this goal, which has been greeted with skepticism by some experts. “A lot of problems will arise during this process” Biologist Beth Shapiro explains New York Times. “This is not a catastrophe. There will never be mangroves on earth again. Tori Herridge, a biologist and archaeologist at the Museum of Natural History in London, tweeted.