Tasmanian Tiger Genome May Be First Step Toward De-Extinction
The newly sequenced genetic blueprint may help scientists clone the predatory marsupial, which was declared extinct in the 1980s.
A baby Tasmanian tiger collected 108 years ago has provided enough high-quality genetic material for researchers to sequence the animal’s entire genome, creating one of the best such genetic blueprints for an extinct animal.
Announced this week in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the genome has revealed details about the marsupial’s evolution and its decline toward extinction—and is a crucial step in plans to clone the creature and potentially bring the species back from the dead.
The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was a wolf-size carnivorous marsupial once common across Australia. It became extinct on the mainland 3,000 years ago but survived on the southern island of Tasmania until human hunters, supposedly trying to protect their livestock, drove it to extinction
