Indeed, perhaps the greatest lesson that can be learned from the spectacle--if large chunks of the Siberian tundra can teach a lesson at all--is that publicity stunts and natural history just don't mix.
Much to the chagrin of the world's leading paleontologists, there's a good reason why Leonardo DiCaprio and Goldie Hawn have face recognition and they don't. Dress a movie star up, spread a few rumors about them being cloned and all that's lost is some ink and a few pages of the National Enquirer. Do the same to a mammoth-cicle and 23,000 years of data may end up forever frozen in order to appease the desires of the masses.