New Delhi, March 5 -- The birth of the Colossal Woolly Mouse, announced by the US-based Colossal Biosciences on Tuesday may seem like a small step in genetic engineering.

What it is actually, is a giant leap in the journey to resurrect the woolly mammoth.

For the Colossal Woolly Mouse are mice engineered to express multiple key mammoth-like traits that provide adaptations to life in cold climates.

"By successfully modifying seven genes simultaneously, Colossal's team created mice with dramatically altered coat color, texture, and thickness reminiscent of the woolly mammoth's core phenotypes," said the company in a statement.

This achievement, it added, demonstrates the feasibility of expressing traits using information learned from th...