The biotech company Colossal Biosciences has long aspired to bring back the extinct woolly mammoth, which roamed the Northern Hemisphere thousands of years ago, during the last ice age. But for now, as a step along the way, the company has come up with something decidedly less mammoth: meet the woolly mouse.

In its quest to bring back the extinct woolly mammoth, a Texas bioengineering company has taken its first steps to genetically engineer the prehistoric creature by creating what it described as "woolly mice.

Using DNA and genomics technologies, scientists have modified the mice to have longer, thicker hair and an altered metabolism expected to allow them to tolerate colder temperatures, Colossal Biosciences said.

When it comes to the woolly mammoth, however, that rule has now been bent. It’s been 4,000 years since the eight-ton, 12-foot, elephant-like beast walked the Earth, but part of its DNA now operates inside several litters of four-inch,