section_path: Reception
section_name: Reception
paragraph_text: Reception
  
  Scientific reception to the project was generally mixed. Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the Francis Crick Institute 's developmental genetics and stem cell biology fields, acknowledged the technical achievements involved in the genetic modification procedures, but highlighted several limitations. He stated that the research did not elucidate the mechanisms through which the genetic modifications produced different hair types or whether the modified mice actually exhibited enhanced cold tolerance, and did not address the substantially greater complexity involved in de-extincting mammoths. Lovell-Badge questioned whether the financial resources directed toward de-extinction efforts might be better utilized in preventing extinctions of currently endangered species.
  
  University of Sheffield paleontologist Tori Herridge emphasized that engineering a woolly mammoth-like elephant presents significantly greater challenges compared to mice. These included elephants bearing a much larger number of genes involved in the phenotype, having less understood genetic mechanisms, as well as the potential complications related to using an uncommon experimental animal as a surrogate.