Australia’s Outback has been less crowded the past eighty years since the believed extinction of the thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger. The strange looking beast was a large stripped dingo-looking marsupial who entered the pages of history in 1936, when the last of its kind died in a Washington, D.C. zoo. Recent headway made by scientists looking to resurrect the woolly mammoth, however, have given biologists hope that the Tiger can once more roam the rugged terrain of the Outback.
Thylacine Awareness Group/YouTube[/caption] IFL Science reports that in the closing months of 2017, scientists from the University of Melbourne finished sequencing the entire genome of the thylacine. With the genetic blueprint complete, the team feels that it is ready to program the preserved remains of thirteen thylacine joeys and reanimate the extinct species.
Museums Victoria’s Mammology Collection[/caption] The process had best work, because unlike the woolly mammoth who has surviving descendants, the thylacine has no species close to its genetic makeup. Using the gene-programming process called CRSIPR, scientists say they will be able to ‘bridge the gap’ between the mammoth’s genome and that of modern day elephants. “What you have to do is take that elephant DNA and make all the changes you see in the mammoth genome on the elephant’s genetic blueprint. Basically, you’re just editing the [elephant] DNA to make it look like a mammoth,” Professor Andrew Pask, University of Melbourne, told news.com.au.
Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Attempting the same process with that of a thylacine and an animal deemed to be the closest thing to the Tiger would be prone to disaster because of the extensive gaps in the genetic codes. “You would have to make a lot more changes to make the numbat [banded anteater] DNA look like a thylacine but the technology for making those changes has gotten exponentially easier in the last five or so years because of the people who are doing the mammoth work.” “That’s something that’s not science fiction anymore, it’s science fact,” Pask added. Proponents of the research express excitement, yet the fact that very few if any scientists are debating the merits of going against what may have been a case of natural selection should be of concern.
EJ Keller - Smithsonian - Public Domain[/caption]