Chinese scientists for first time have successfully cloned two identical long-tailed macaques (monkeys), named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.
Scientists used the same technique for cloning that produced Dolly sheep which is the first cloned organism of the world.
This development makes them world’s first primates to be cloned from non-embryonic cell.
It is significant because monkeys have in the past proved resistant to the cloning technique.
They were cloned using process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which involves transferring the nucleus of cell, which includes its DNA, into egg whose nucleus is removed.