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Breeding

Scientists Planned to Clone an Extinct Horse From 42,000-Year-Old Blood—But Did It Work?

A remarkably preserved Siberian foal inspired a proposed cloning attempt in 2019. Liquid blood showed preservation, not proof that viable cells survived—or that a clone was ever produced.

By Animalso Team 3 min read

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A foal recovered from Siberian permafrost in 2018 was estimated in 2019 reports to be about 42,000 years old and identified as a Lena horse. Its unusually preserved body included what researchers described as liquid blood, prompting discussion of a possible cloning attempt. That was a plan—not a demonstrated result. Cloning depended on finding living, usable cells, and contemporaneous reports said attempts to grow cells had already failed.

What was found in Siberia?

The specimen was a young horse recovered from permafrost in Siberia. Reports published in April 2019 gave it an approximate age of 42,000 years and identified it as a Lena horse, an extinct horse type from the Ice Age.

The preservation was exceptional. Researchers reported liquid blood and preserved soft tissue in the remains. Semyon Grigoryev, identified as head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, said, “We can now claim that this is the best-preserved Ice Age animal ever found in the world.” That is Grigoryev’s assessment, not an independently verified ranking.

Why did liquid blood raise the idea of cloning?

Cloning a mammal requires more than recognizable tissue or fluid. In somatic cell nuclear transfer, scientists place genetic material from a body cell into an egg whose nucleus has been removed, then attempt to develop the reconstructed embryo and carry it in a surrogate.

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The proposed foal project therefore required researchers to locate viable cells, preserve or recover their nuclei, and grow the cells in laboratory culture. Liquid blood could indicate remarkable preservation, but it does not establish that living cells survived for tens of thousands of years.

What did the researchers actually plan?

Cell culture came first

The first practical test was whether cells from the remains could be grown. Futurism reported that researchers had tried and failed to grow cells 20 times. That figure describes the attempts reported in that 2019 account; it is not a general cloning success rate.

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A surrogate mare would have been needed

Smithsonian Magazine reported that the team hoped to find viable cells and was searching for a surrogate mare as part of the announced plan. A surrogate would only matter after the laboratory work produced a viable reconstructed embryo.

Did scientists clone the foal?

No demonstrated clone is established by the available 2019 reporting. The reports describe an ambition contingent on recovering viable cells, while also describing unsuccessful attempts to grow cells. They do not establish that a cloned foal was produced, that cloning was assured, or that the effort definitively ended.

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How is this different from ordinary horse cloning?

Horse cloning itself is scientifically possible. The National Human Genome Research Institute notes that somatic cell cloning has been used in horses and other mammals. That background shows that the basic method can work with suitable modern cells; it does not show that usable cells remained in this ancient specimen.

Evidence or claim What it establishes What it does not establish
Foal recovered from Siberian permafrost, approximately 42,000 years old An unusually ancient and well-preserved Lena horse specimen was reported That its cells were still alive
Liquid blood and preserved tissue Remarkable physical preservation Viable cells suitable for cloning
Reported attempts to grow cells failed 20 times The proposed laboratory step remained unresolved in the 2019 account A universal probability of cloning failure
Modern horses have been cloned Somatic cell cloning can work in horses with appropriate material That this extinct foal could be cloned

What is the project’s current status?

The contemporaneous reports do not provide a verified later success or a definitive end to the effort. Without a dated project update or published result establishing what happened afterward, the responsible description is that the cloning proposal remains unresolved.

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Why preservation and viability are separate questions

Permafrost can slow decomposition and preserve anatomical structures, fluids and DNA fragments. Cloning, however, requires a much narrower kind of preservation: intact, functional genetic material inside a cell that can be recovered and used in a demanding sequence of laboratory and reproductive steps. A specimen can be spectacularly preserved for anatomical study while still lacking cells capable of being cultured or reprogrammed.

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What would count as proof of success?

A credible claim would need more than photographs of the foal or a report of liquid blood. It would require publicly documented evidence that researchers recovered viable donor cells, created an embryo, established a pregnancy in a surrogate, and produced a healthy animal whose genetic identity was confirmed. The 2019 accounts did not report those milestones.

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