Will the extinct life come back? The future of the earth from the latest mammoth research

Mammoths may be resurrected in modern times.
A large mammal, the mammoth, which is said to have become extinct about 4,000 years ago. In recent years, some of the permafrost has melted due to the effects of global warming, and "frozen specimens" that are different from fossils such as skeleton specimens have been discovered.

This time, we asked Mr. Hitoshi Matsuoka, the chief science communicator, to ask the exhibition "Mammoth Exhibition" where the frozen specimens (including the world premiere) are exhibited-Is that "life" revived?-(National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) I talked to you.
What can we, living in the present, learn from encountering life that has passed thousands and tens of thousands of years?

Are mammoths extinct due to Climate Change?

— At the "Mammoth Exhibition", you can see many frozen specimens of mammoths and other living things. I was surprised that the hair and skin remained fresh.

Hitoshi Matsuoka (Matsuoka): The specimens shown in this exhibition were excavated in a frozen state from the permafrost of the Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation.
Research on the mammoth itself has been around for a long time. However, since the information as a living thing is limited only by the skeleton, there were many things that I did not understand.

— What did you learn from the new research materials?

Matsuoka: For example, by examining the stomach of an individual found in a frozen state, we found the plant that the mammoth was feeding on. The inability of the plant to adapt to climate change is thought to have had a major impact on mammoths.

— Could global Climate Change be the reason the mammoths went extinct?

Matsuoka: Although it is not clear, it is said that the relationship with Climate Change is large.
The majority of mammoths disappeared from the earth between 12,000 and 3,000 years ago. Around that time, it became clear that the earth was warming rapidly. mammoth
Woolly mammoths evolved to live in cold climates, so they couldn't adapt to environmental changes. Not only mammoths, but also many large mammals that lived around Siberia became extinct around the same time.

— Is it possible that humanity is involved in the extinction of mammoths?

Matsuoka: Certainly, there are traces of human beings hunting mammoths. It is believed that humankind has expanded its range of movement as the entire globe has become warmer. The mammoth's extinction factor is not just one, but it is probably the result of various changes.

The present earth is "ice age"

— Did you mean that “global warming” was occurring 10,000 years ago when the number of mammoths decreased?

Matsuoka:That's right. In the first place, the earth repeats the "ice age" and the "greenhouse period" every hundreds of millions of years. For example, 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs lived, the Earth was in the greenhouse period, there was no ice in Antarctica, and the temperature was much higher than it is now.
In terms of geological age, the present earth is in the "ice age". Will the ice in Greenland and Antarctica not melt even in summer?

Therefore, it is a fact that people like me who are studying earth science are a little reluctant to simply think that the earth is warming now.

— The current era is the “ice age” in a broad sense ...!

Matsuoka:yes. The temperature of the earth began to fall tens of millions of years ago, and it dropped further about 250 years ago.
From there, we are connected to the present, but the same ice age also had an "glacial period" and an "interglacial period", and Climate Change was repeated in a cycle of about 100,000 years.
The most recent ice age ended just 12,000 years ago, when most mammoths disappeared. Then the temperature rose, and now we are entering an interglacial period when the temperature is stable.

— Does that mean that the time will come when the temperature of the earth will drop as we head toward the glacial period?

Matsuoka:I agree. Perhaps after 10,000 to 20,000 years, the temperature should drop again.

— If you look at the global environment in units of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, there is a big cycle in which the temperature changes. With that in mind, it is not necessary to consider "global warming" caused by greenhouse gases, which is currently regarded as a problem, to be so dangerous ...?

Matsuoka: No, it's not. Researchers are very conscious of the crisis about the speed at which the temperature of the earth rises. Compared to the previous cycle, the temperature changes faster.
We do not know what impact this will have on the global environment and ecosystems, or what will cause it. Researchers have examined various scenarios, but the future is truly unknown.

Mammoths that lived tens of thousands of years ago, their cells moved

— If Climate Change progresses rapidly like the mammoth, some animals will become extinct, right?

Matsuoka: Like mammoths, the extinction of living things over a period of time is not unnatural. In the long history of life on Earth, few creatures have been alive.

Organisms repeat prosperity and extinction for each species, and each time a new organism is born and evolved, it has diversified. Originally, that is natural.
But again, the temperature changes in recent years are so fast that we don't know how they will affect the global environment and ecosystems in the future.

— This mammoth exhibition covers the “Mammoth Revival Project” of Kinki University on a large scale, but advances in life science technology will revive extinct organisms and prevent the extinction of organisms themselves. Will it be possible?

Matsuoka: It's a tough road, but the possibilities aren't zero.
In March 2019, a research team at Kinki University took cell nuclei from a well-preserved frozen sample of mammoth and injected them into mouse eggs, and mammoth cell nuclei more than 10,000 years ago showed signs of vital activity. I found that.
Just because the extinct mammoth is revived, of course, it is doubtful that it can adapt to the current changes in the environment. There is a possibility that the environment and ecosystem will be changed by the appearance of new organisms that should not originally inhabit.

Connecting the past, present, and future with "mammoth" as a trigger

— We may tend to simplify and perceive things such as “global warming” and “extinction of living things” just by the image of words. Through this "Mammoth Exhibition" and Mr. Matsuoka's talk, I wanted to know again what is really happening on the earth today and what is the problem.

Matsuoka: The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation believes that it is our mission to show everyone exactly what is happening now, based on objective data derived from the latest research.
First of all, let us know the current situation. It is up to each person to understand what to read, what to think about, and what action to take.

— Mr. Matsuoka, how do you want visitors to see the “Mammoth Exhibition”?

Matsuoka: I would like you to enjoy it in various ways.
For example, I would like children who say "I like mammoths" to look up at the restored models and skeleton specimens and experience the surprise of "It's this size!".
If you are wondering, "Why did the mammoth perish?", I would like you to understand the cause and gain a perspective that connects you to the current environmental problems.

Some people may start thinking, "Isn't that technology useful for medical treatment?", Focusing on the fact that cells of living organisms that lived tens of thousands of years ago could be collected from frozen specimens.
With "mammoth" as one of the keywords, I hope that you will have an opportunity to think about the ancient creatures, the current global environment, and the future.

▼ About the "Mammoth Exhibition" being held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (until November 4th!)
Special exhibition "Mammoth Exhibition" -Will that "life" be revived?-
Venue: National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Odaiba, Tokyo)
Holding period: June 7th (Friday) -November 4th (Monday / holiday), 2019
Holding time: 10: 00-17: 00 (Admission is 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Tuesday
　＞＞ Click here for details
* "Euglena cookie" is also on sale as a souvenir at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation!

Others: The Fukuoka Exhibition will be held from Saturday, November 23, 2019 to Sunday, February 23, 2020 (Fukuoka City Science Museum). After that, it will travel to Nagoya and Osaka.

* Honorific titles omitted in the text

Photo: Takuya Sakawaki / Composition / Editing: Yu Oshima