A group of Japanese scientists compared DNA samples of the prehistoric elephant found in Siberia with samples of modern elephants from Asia and Africa
Japanese scientists claim that DNA tests show that the prehistoric Siberian mammoth is close to the Asian elephants and not to the African elephants. The findings settle an old debate regarding the lineage of the giant animals that became extinct already 10,000 years ago.
Prof. Tomo Ozawa and his team, from Nagoya University in Japan, examined a piece of muscle taken from a mammoth found in Siberia, and determined that the animal and Asian elephants belong to the same ancestor from 7.3 million years ago.
The team analyzed the DNA taken from the mammoth and compared it to that of the African and Asian elephant. This, after researchers disagreed on the question of which species of elephant the woolly mammoth is closer to. "Thanks to the good condition of the mammoth tissue samples, we were able to decode the DNA successfully," Ozawa said. "As scientists, we are so happy that our findings can now settle the controversy regarding the relatives of the mammoth, a controversy that has lasted for about 30 years," he added.
at the AP news agency It was reported that the head of the Siberian mammoth - ten thousand years old - was found in excavations in the frozen steppes of Siberia last June, and was almost perfectly preserved. It is now on display at the "Aichi Expo 2005" exhibition in central Japan. Ozawa's group of researchers is publicly presenting their findings at a symposium today.
