Scientists are one step closer to cloning a woolly mammoth, thanks to the results of a new autopsy conducted on a remarkably preserved specimen of the species discovered last year.

The 40,000-year-old mammoth, nicknamed “Buttercup,” was found in permafrost on the remote Siberian island of Maly Lyakhovsky. When scientists cut into the carcass, its fresh-looking flesh oozed dark blood, raising hopes that DNA could be extracted.

Scientists believe that the key to cloning the prehistoric beast is finding a complete copy of its DNA. That wasn’t found in this case, but the scientists did recover long fragments. Plans call for researchers from South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation to analyze tissue samples from the carcass over the next two years, with the hopes of finding an intact genome. (1)

The dead is not dead.
What was alive, always stays so.
In a weird way you already know this.
Not through DNA.
Not through genetics.
But in a more simple and elegant way.
By simply not dying.
Check again.
There is nothing to “resurrect”.

That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die…