A “healthy” rhesus monkey cloned in China has survived for more than two years and is providing “valuable insights” into the scientific process, according to researchers.

Scientists in China used a modified version of the same technique that was used to create Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal.

Out of the 113 cloned embryos, 11 were implanted into surrogate monkeys, but only one survived.

Named ReTro, the male rhesus monkey was born following a gestation period of 157 days.

The team said that although the success rate of producing viable and healthy clones is low – less than 1% in this instance – it advances the understanding of the mechanisms involved in primate cloning.