Dolly Day - July 5

On this date in 1996 the first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, was born at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute. This scientific breakthrough made Dolly the world's most famous sheep (at least since that lamb that Mary had).

Dolly's DNA came from a mammary cell of a Finn Dorset sheep inserted into an egg cell of a Scottish Blackface sheep, and this was brought to term in yet another Scottish Blackface sheep - it could be argued that Dolly had 3 moms.

Dolly went on to become a mom herself, giving birth first to Bonnie, then Sally and Rosie, and finally Lucy, Darcy, and Cotton. After that she developed arthritis and a lung tumor, Dolly was euthanized at around 6 1/2 years of age.

Though sheep normally live 11-12 years, cloning probably didn't lead to her short life. She was herself cloned 4 times, and Daisy, Debbie, Dianna, and Denise were all healthy at 9 years of age.

Remi Mathis, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons


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