Some of the scientists aiming to 'bring back' the woolly mammoth originally wanted to do it using 28,000-year-old cells

Picture this: A beast with most of the features of a woolly mammoth (think long, shaggy hair, plus special adaptations to sub-zero temperatures, like subcutaneous fat and specially-adapted blood) plus a few elephant-like traits (like a slightly longer body).

Nope, it's not your Pottermore Patronus.

It's the animal that a team of Harvard scientists hopes to create (or "bring back" as some advocates of the controversial practice known as de-extinction might say). And they want to do it in the next few years by combining the DNA of an elephant and a woolly mammoth using the gene-editing technology Crispr.

The team introduced their idea for the "mammophant," better known as "an elephant with a number of mammoth traits," at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston this week. They said it could be a reality by 2019.

Scientists have been talking about resurrecting the woolly mammoth, which went extinct thousands of years ago, for years, but the 2013 discovery of an astonishingly well-preserved mammoth carcass — complete with ancient blood — jumpstarted much of the excitement about the idea.

Here's a look into how they aimed to create a "mammophant" in 2014, before Crispr was a thing.

SEE ALSO: Scientists who want to bring back the giant woolly mammoth say they could be roaming around in 10 years

When a group of scientists heard rumors that the remains of a long-extinct mammal had been unearthed from the frozen ground on an island in northern Siberia, they rushed to the scene to see for themselves.

Source: Smithsonian's "How To Clone A Woolly Mammoth."

Yet as they arrived, the only evidence scientists found of an ancient beast lurking somewhere beneath the ground were parts of two giant tusks poking out of the icy Earth.

Source: Smithsonian's "How To Clone A Woolly Mammoth."

Over the next three days, as the ice surrounding the carcass slowly began to thaw, the scientists realized what an exciting find they had come across. The surprisingly well-preserved bones, muscles, teeth, and even some blood told the story of a woolly mammoth, a gargantuan beast that roamed the frosty tundra some 28,000 years ago.

Source: Smithsonian's "How To Clone A Woolly Mammoth."