Our primary focus here at Wild Animal News has been living wild animals but the prospect of resurrecting extinct wild animals has been hard to ignore. Today, once again, the spotlight is on the possibility of a Tasmanian Tiger return. That “tiger,” scientifically known as a thylacine, was Australia’s apex predator – and a marsupial. It probably went extinct in 1936. They are not part of any feline lineage. It is named after the striped pattern of its coat.
According to Daily Galaxy the triumphal return could be in as little as ten years. Despite the recent date of extinction the prospect of return seemed an incredible long shot. The first problem was the perceived lack of usable DNA critical to any revival. A series of discoveries in museums around the world seems to have solved that aspect of the problem. Second was the tiny size of its nearest living relative.
Colossal Biosciences claims to have sequenced the thylacine DNA. This due to the discovery of a century old specimen in prime condition.
According to the Daily Galaxy:
“A 108-year-old thylacine pup, preserved in alcohol at a museum in Melbourne, provided researchers with an exceptionally well-preserved genetic sample. This rare find allowed them to extract not only DNA but also RNA molecules, which revealed how the thylacine’s genes functioned.
“The thylacine samples used for our new reference genome are among the best-preserved ancient specimens my team has worked with,” said Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer.
“By analyzing the RNA, researchers could determine what the thylacine could taste, how it smelled, how it processed light, and even how its brain functioned. This level of detail goes beyond traditional genetic reconstruction, giving scientists an unprecedented view into the biology of an extinct predator.”
“With this new resource in hand, we will be able to determine what a thylacine could taste, what it could smell, what kind of vision it had, and even how its brain functioned,” explained Professor Andrew Pask from the University of Melbourne, a leading researcher on the project.”
The other major hurdle is creating a viable embryo that can be raised to birth. The nearest living relative to the thylacine is a fat-tailed dunnart (Dasyuridae), which is a rodent sized marsupial. Thylacines were roughly the size of medium German Shepherd.
Colossal is also trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) . That appears easier as the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is the mammoth’s closest living relative.
A Tasmanian tiger return may not be truly necessary. One remote possibility is that the thylacine is not extinct after all. Quite a few people believe they have seen living thylacines in remote parts of Tasmania. One scientist believes they survived long after 1936. Possibly into at least the 1980’s. But the likelihood of living wild thylacines is considered low.
The Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia (TAGOA) is actively seeking to prove the experts wrong. The Tasmanian tiger return may be as simple as taking a closer look around.