Woolly mammoth project

Woolly mammoth project

WASHINGTON — An international team of scientists has reconstructed more than three-quarters of the genome of the woolly mammoth using DNA extracted from balls of hair, the first time this has been accomplished for an extinct species.

The project provides some of the starting material that would be required to bring back to life the species of giant, hairy, cold-weather animals. That task, however, is too difficult to be accomplished soon — and may turn out to be impossible.

The research immediately offers insight into the history of elephants, however. It may illuminate the evolutionary adaptations that did — and did not — occur in mammoths as habitat and climate changed eons ago. It also suggests that samples of fur, including many in museum collections, may be more useful than previously recognized in studying extinct species.

“One can imagine a new field of ‘museomics’ using the collected samples that are now stored in natural history museums,” said Stephan Schuster, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University who headed the 21-person research team with a colleague, Webb Miller.

White House expedites infrastructure rules

WASHINGTON — Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don’t pose a threat, under regulations the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Barack Obama can reverse them.

The rules must be published Friday to take effect before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20. Otherwise, he can undo them with the stroke of a pen.

The Interior Department rushed to complete the rules in three months over the objections of lawmakers and environmentalists who argued that they would weaken how a landmark conservation law is applied.

A Nov. 12 version of the final rules obtained by the Associated Press has changed little from the original proposal, despite the more than 250,000 comments received since it was first proposed.

Herod’s possible tomb

HERODIUM, West Bank — King Herod may have been buried in a crypt with lavish Roman-style wall paintings of a kind previously unseen in the Middle East, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday.

The scientists found such paintings and signs of a regal two-story mausoleum, bolstering their conviction that the ancient Jewish monarch was buried there.

Ehud Netzer, head of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University excavation team, which uncovered the site of the king’s winter palace in the Judean desert in 2007, said the latest finds show work and funding fit for a king.

“What we found here, spread all around, are architectural fragments that enable us to restore a monument of 25 meters high, 75 feet high, very elegant, which fits Herod’s taste and status,” he told The Associated Press in an interview at the hillside dig in an Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem.

New charge against Palin

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — She’s a national political figure and one of the world’s most famous people. She’s also governor of Alaska.

As Sarah Palin settles back into her job as the state’s chief executive, a new ethics complaint filed Tuesday says she’s already improperly mixing her official duties and broader political ambitions.

The charge: That Palin broke state ethics rules by holding national television interviews about her run for vice president from the governor’s office.

The complaint comes as Palin’s personal life, her prospects as a future presidential candidate and everything she says and does continues to draw headlines.

Zane Henning, a North Slope worker from Wasilla, said he filed the complaint with the attorney general. He says Palin is promoting her future political career on state property, pointing in particular to the governor’s Nov. 10 interview with Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren.

Associated Press