The genetic code of the woolly mammoth has been mapped by scientists, raising the prospect that it may one day be possible to resurrect the behemoths that died out at the end of the last Ice Age.

The ancient creature’s genome — 80 per cent of which has been pieced together from two carcasses preserved in the Siberian permafrost — has already revealed that mammoths were more closely related to modern elephants than had been thought, and offered clues to why they became extinct.

In the longer term, it may offer a still greater prize: the raw material with which to recreate mammoths.

“By deciphering this genome we could, in theory, generate data that one day may help other researchers to bring the woolly mammoth back to life by inserting the uniquely mammoth DNA sequences into the genome of the modern-day elephant,” said Stephan Schuster, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Pennsylvania State University.

“This would allow scientists to retrieve the genetic information that was believed to have been lost when the mammoth died out, as well as to bring back an extinct species that modern humans have missed meeting by only a few thousand years.”

Other scientists cautioned that the prospect of reviving the mammoth remained many years away, if it were possible.

While mice were cloned recently from dead tissue frozen for 16 years, DNA that dates back thousands of years is invariably highly damaged. That means that while it can be used to reconstruct an animal’s genome, it is unlikely to be good enough to produce the animal itself.

“A genome sequence does not make a living organism,” said Jeremy Austin, of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.

“Currently we only have a partial mammoth genome, with a sizeable number of errors in the genetic code. It’s a bit like trying to build a car with only 80 per cent of the parts and knowing that some of the parts are already broken.”

The woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, was a species highly adapted to the extreme cold that thrived through the last Ice Age. The species was extinct across most of its range by 10,000 years ago, though some dwarf mammoths may have survived until 4,000 years ago.

Several specimens have been extremely well-preserved after their bodies were flash-frozen in permafrost, which has allowed scientists to extract considerable amounts of DNA from their hair.

Some parts of this genetic material, covering 13 of the mammoth’s estimated 20,000 genes, were sequenced in 2005 by Professor Schuster’s team, but new techniques have now allowed it to make much greater progress. The group used one animal that died about 20,000 years ago and a second that has been dead for at least 60,000 years.

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