Tasmanian Tigers became extinct 81 years ago when the last specimen died in Hobart Zoo in 1936, although it was officially declared extinct in the 1980s.
a group of scientists seeks to “resurrect” in 10 years through genetic engineering the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), the only predatory marsupial in Australia that became extinct in 1936informed this Wednesday one of the people in charge of the project.
Professor Andrew Pask of the University of Melbourne explained that the project involves extracting cells from a fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata). It is a marsupial similar to a mouse, to convert them into cells that are as similar as possible to those of the Tasmanian Tiger.
Scientists intend to take the living cells of the dunnart, considered the closest living relative of the Tasmanian tiger, and compare them with those of the extinct animal to determine their differences.
It’s It will allow them to “edit all the DNA of this animal to turn it into that of a thylacine”Pask, who heads the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Laboratory (TIGRR), told the Australian public broadcaster ABC.
“At the end of the process you essentially have a thylacine cell, but you can do a kind of IVF cloning (in vitro fertilization)” to develop a living organism, explained the TIGRR expert, who has already developed the complete genome of the tiger from Tasmania.
Why resurrect the Tasmanian Tiger?
This project, which hopes to “resurrect” the Tasmanian tiger in regarding ten years, also contemplates developing the embryo of this extinct carnivorous marsupial. Either inside a test tube or using a fat-tailed dunnart as a surrogate.
“At birth, the fat-tailed thylacine and dunnart are not much larger than a grain of rice, so even an animal as small as a mouse can give birth to a thylacine,” Pask told ABC.
Scientists at the Laboratory led by Pask, which is collaborating on this project with the American genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences, aims to introduce the Tasmanian tiger into its natural habitatwhere they hope to maintain their usual predatory habits.
The thylacine, a marsupial with stripes across its back reminiscent of a tiger, It came to inhabit mainland Australia and the island of New Guinea. Although it disappeared from those places, with the exception of the island of Tasmania, regarding 3,000 years ago due to climate change.
When the Europeans arrived in Oceania in the 18th century, their population was concentrated on the island of Tasmania, and its extinction was hastened by an intense hunting campaign between 1830 and 1909. The latter encouraged by rewards to end this predator that ate cattle.
Tasmanian Tigers became extinct 81 years ago when the last specimen died in Hobart Zoo in 1936, although it was officially declared extinct in the 1980s.
