Extinct Arctic explorer Bernard Buigues uses a hair dryer to melt ice from the fur of a mammoth that died 20,000 years ago.
Scientists hope to find some DNA preserved in the carcass' tissues.
Click to find out how cloning is done. Sit in ice for 20,000 years, and the water damage, ultraviolet radiation and chemical decay will likely shatter your DNA to bits. That makes dreams of cloning a mammoth pulled out of a chunk of Siberian ice last fall unlikely, but even in pieces, the DNA will still tell scientists much about the extinct pachyderm. Greenwood was one of the researchers who presented their views about the mammoth during a panel discussion at the museum last week. The genetic code, Greenwood said, could enable scientists to draw more detailed relationships within the elephant family tree, which is known to have originated in north Africa.