Bringing Back The Mammoth (again)

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2312860,00.html

BODIES of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been 
frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that 
could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.

Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for 
much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could 
potentially be recovered from species that have died out.

Several well-preserved mammoth carcasses have been found in the permafrost 
of Siberia, and scientists estimate that there could be millions more.

Last year a Canadian team demonstrated that it was possible to extract DNA 
from the specimens, and announced the sequencing of about 1 per cent of 
the genome of a mammoth that died about 27,000 years ago.

With access to the mammoths genetic code, and with frozen sperm recovered 
from testes, it may be possible to resurrect an animal that is very 
similar to a mammoth.
...
The frozen mammoth sperm could be injected into elephant eggs, producing 
offspring that would be 50 per cent mammoth.
...
Even sperm taken from mouse bodies that had been frozen 15 years ago was 
capable of fertilising mouse eggs and producing pups, the researchers 
found.
...
If sperm of extinct mammalian species, for example the woolly mammoth, can 
be retrieved from animal bodies that were kept frozen for millions of 
years in permanent frost, live animals might be restored by injecting them 
into oocytes [eggs] from females of closely related species.

(so, what if they find a frozen neanderthal?)