‘s Horse. Sorry, I ran out of room.

Tashkent State Technical University

The scientists and students at one of Uzbekistan’s oldest universities were given a simple task by a wealthy benefactor. To look into the feasibility of using frozen DNA to artificially clone an extinct species, either the old Turkoman horse that was likely ridden by the great conqueror Timur, or alternatively the fabled Aurochs which could later be farmed for its meat.

The first task would be to determine what type of horse the great Timur rode. In these preliminary stages, it would surely be prudent to explore both the horse and the aurochs as potential subjects, after all; we don’t even know if it will be possible yet.

Initial google searches from historians revealed that Tamerlane’s Horse only returns results of an Australian race horse named Tamerlane. Uzbeks, despite being somewhat offended that the name of their great conqueror was being ridden by a jockey, pressed on researching many nights and days to determine the pedigree of the late Timur’s steed. Ultimately it was determined that the horse was some type of Turkoman; based on contemporary depictions of the conqueror and descriptions of the horse in the historical record. It shouldn’t be difficult to acquire Turkoman DNA, as several Uzbek native horses are descendants of the great Turkoman, and the well-known Thoroughbred breed is also thought to be a descendent.

The Aurochs has been extinct for centuries, and acquiring the DNA needed for cloning may prove to be difficult. Regardless, it was at one time a very common beast all across the former territories of Chingis Khan’s empire and thus our lands are included in this. It is no doubt that we will be able to devise some sort of plan to find DNA for cloning an Aurochs.

With the two proposed creatures determined, both have been given “high” feasibility, but further studies will determine which path the researchers will take in fighting against the scourge of evolution and extinction.