a hairy beast

Genome sequences of animals seem to come cheaper by the dozen these days, but yesterday's issue of Nature contains one that is special nonetheless. It's the first sequence of an extinct animal, namely the woolly mammoth (p. 387, comment on p 330). There's also a news feature on what it would take to bring the species back to life. At least it would make a nice change from our usual activity of wiping out species at the highest rate ever, if we could bring back one.