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Return of Thylacinus cynocephalus AKA the Tasmanian Wolf/Tiger?

Started by Silent Watcher, July 22, 2006, 04:29:27 PM

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Silent Watcher

((I was not sure were the post this, it falls into many categories.))

  Pictures: 
http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-2/1102937374.jpg

http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-2/1102937360.jpg

Films can be found here:
http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/films/motion_film_footage.htm#film_7

Carnivorous marsupial Thylacinus cynocephalus, in the family Dasyuridae. It is doglike in appearance with a long tail, characteristic dark stripes on back and hindquarters, and measures nearly 2 m/6 ft from nose to tail tip. It was hunted to probable extinction in the 1930s, the last known Tasmanian wolf dying in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania, in 1936, but there are still occasional unconfirmed reports of sightings, both on the Australian mainland and in the Tasmanian mountains, its last known habitat.


A team of scientists at the Australian Museum, Sydney, has extracted DNA from a 134-year-old preserved Tasmanian wolf pup ((accidentally preserved in alcohol instead of formalin, thus retaining its DNA)) as the first stage in an attempt to recreate the extinct marsupial. The leader of the project and head of evolutionary biology at the Australian Museum, Dr Don Colgan, gave the project, at its outset in 2000, only an 8–10% chance of success. It would be the first cloning of an animal from dead DNA.

If this is a success, will this perhaps the start of cloning extinct animals like Caspian Tiger or the Quagga? Or maybe even dinosaurs? Is this a new hope to endangered animals and plants? Hope to the delicate food chain humans are dangerously close to destroying?


Weirdelicious

They've got the strangest animals in that region! Where did you learn about that animal? Not common knowledge!

As long as they don't clone dinosaurs, we'll be safe!

Silent Watcher

Just found some interesting data-

Australian scientists believe they have made a major breakthrough in their attempts to clone the Tasmanian tiger and bring the species back from extinction.

They have successfully replicated Tasmanian tiger DNA, resulting in millions of pure copies of undamaged DNA fragments which they believe can work in a living cell.

Professor Mike Archer, director of the Australian Museum, said in Sydney today he hoped the first cloned Tasmanian tiger pup could be born within a decade.

Weirdelicious

Wow! That's very interesting! It is really a strange animal! Never heard or read about it before! But if they can do that, it would help alot for the preservation of endangered species!

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