AN extinct species could make its comeback nearly 100 years after it disappeared as scientists claim they are 99.9% done with the animal’s revival.
A biotech company, based in Dallas, Texas, revealed it has resurrected the long-lost Tasmanian tiger.
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The last known thylacine, also known as a Tasmanian wolf, died on 7 September 1936 in captivity and countless expedition efforts were unable to find the animal in the wild.
Biotech company Colossal Biosciences, understood to be the world’s first de-extinction company, has claimed it has nearly completed its resurrection project for the Australian animal.
This group said it has completed 99.9% of tiger’s genome reconstruction and added the remaining gaps will be filled soon.
Attempts to bring back this animal started in 2017 when a 107-year-old tiger pouch, preserved in alcohol, was put through gene sequencing.
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This attempt failed as too many genetic gaps appeared.
Colossal Biosciences started their resurrection attempts in 2022 when they sequenced a 120-year-old thylacine tooth to fill the previous gaps.
A professor and member of Colossal Biosciences’ scientific advisory board, Andrew Pask, explained how this sample led to their breakthrough.
“The sample we were able to access was so well preserved that we could recover fragments of DNA that were thousands of bases long,” Pask told the New Scientist.
The company revealed its next step would be to implant the finished genome into a Dasyurid egg, a marsupial believed to be the Tasmanian tiger’s closest relative.
Colossal Biosciences had predicted the first Tasmanian tigers could be born within six to 10 years.
The initial group of tigers would firstly be raised on private land before being introduced into the wild.
The Tasmanian tiger’s extinction caused huge issues on the island of Tasmania due to the disruption of the food chain.
This animal was once the top predator on the island but invasive species have been able to spread in the century since its extinction.
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Its wipe-out has since led to a rise in disease on the island.
Therefore, the reintroduction of the tiger could be a win for science and a win for Tasmania’s ecosystm.
The CEO of Colossal Biosciences, Ben Lamm, previously told The Sun that his company was not looking to stop its work at the Tasmanian tiger.
CEO Lamm’s company could move onto bigger animals like the woolly mammoth.
About 4,000 years after its extinction a mammoth it set to be born via an artificial womb by 2028.
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The biotech business also revealed it was working to bring back the infamous dodo from the dead.
Lamm said the woolly mammoth could be the last to make its comeback as the tiger and dodo have shorter development times.
What was a Tasmanian tiger?
- Thylacines were large carnivorous marsupials which looked like a cross between a wolf and a big cat.
- The slow-moving predators hunted kangaroos as well as other marsupials, rodents and small birds.
- The long, lanky marsupial had several signatures including a thin tail, striped lower back, and narrow snout.
- They once lived throughout Australia but became extinct on the mainland around 2,000 years ago.
- It was then confined to the island of Tasmania until they were eventually killed off by dogs and hunters.
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