An Australian company claims to have created the world's first meatball using a woolly mammoth's DNA.

Footage shows the rare half-pounder reportedly grown from the dinosaur-era cells being revealed after it was ground and cooked.

The unique dish Mammoth Meatball is said to be the product of molecular engineering by the Australian cultured meat company Vow before it was first showcased at the Nemo Science Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on March 28.

While most of the food comprised the hairy extinct creature, the engineers took fragments of DNA from an African elephant, a close relative of the species.

Creator Bas Korsten said: ‘In much the same way that The Next Rembrandt in 2016 harnessed cutting edge technology to produce something unexpected and groundbreaking, the Mammoth Meatball shows the world that when technology meets creativity, it can change our future.

‘Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat, and what the future alternatives can look and taste like. Cultured Meat is meat, but not as we know it. It's the future.'

Vow founder Tim Noakesmith said that an additional reason for choosing mammoth is that scientists believe that the animal's extinction was caused by climate change.

He added: 'We wanted to create something that was totally different from anything you can get now.'