• the oldest DNA ever discovered comes from plants, which are estimated to have lived 400,000 years ago. they were found preserved in Siberia. the frozen soil also yielded DNA fragments of the woolly mammoth, reindeer and musk ox.

• apart from the infamous Dolly the sheep, other animals have also been cloned including Promotea and Paris-Texas (horses), Littly Nicky (a cat), a guar (an endangered asian bovine species) from a cow named Bessie. scientists are also considering cloning endangered species like the giant panda, ocelot and cheetah. in may 2005, geneticists at the Australian Museum revived a project to clone the long-extinct tasmanian tiger.

• Cloniad, the medical arm of the Raelian cult, supposedly cloned a human being named eve in dec 2002. but nothing more has been heard of the group, who also claims that aliens created life on earth through genetic engineering.

kAkA.hUnTeR

Uh-huh.