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Australian Scientists Plan to Resurrect the Extinct Tasmanian Tiger-An ambitious new project aims to bring an iconic marsupial species back from the dead.
CNet ^ | 3-1-22 | Jackson Ryan

Posted on 03/02/2022 7:10:25 AM PST by SJackson

The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, is one of Australia's most iconic species. Even though it has been extinct since 1936, the slender, striped marsupial maintains its place in Australian mythology because of a constant string of supposed sightings that has captivated the public and the media. Just last year, one group claimed to have spotted the "Tassie tiger" padding through Australia's forests. The claims were never verified.

Sadly, the Tasmanian tiger is gone -- but with advances in biotechnology, that might not have to be the case.

A group of researchers from the University of Melbourne plan to bring the Tasmanian tiger back from the dead. On March 1, they announced the creation of the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab, thanks to a $3.6 million ($5 million AUD) philanthropic donation.

Andrew Pask, a marsupial evolutionary biologist and Tasmanian tiger expert at the University of Melbourne, will lead the project. He notes that yes, the grand challenge of the research is to bring back the Tasmanian tiger from the dead. However, while that is the headline goal, the biotechnology that will be developed along the way is critical for marsupial conservation efforts today.

"It's not all Jurassic Park and, you know, 'we shouldn't be playing God'," says Pask. "We actually need a lot of this stuff for protecting marsupials right now."

There have been calls to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger for over two decades. In 1999, paleontologist Michael Archer took over as director of the Australian Museum and committed around $57 million to a project that hoped to clone the iconic marsupial from old specimens. It was called a "fantasy" at the time and by 2005, it was canned.

Since then, two decades of breakthroughs in gene editing have allowed scientists to dream big about "de-extinction," the process of bringing extinct species back from the dead. The major revolution is thanks to CRISPR, a powerful DNA cut-and-paste tool, which presents a way for scientists to recreate the genetic code of species long extinct.

The technology is at the heart of a proposal to bring back the Woolly Mammoth by 2027, led by the biotech firm Colossal. In September, the company announced it had received $15 million in funding and would attempt to have the first calves in "four to six years" and rewild herds of mammoth into the Arctic.

Decoding the Thylacine Bringing back a species would require understanding its DNA code, from start to finish.

Scientists would then be able to take cells from a related species and use CRISPR to change that code. For instance, the Tasmanian tiger is related to another marsupial species, the mouse-like dunnart. "It turns out the dunnart is pretty much the closest thing to a thylacine of any living marsupial," he says.

Starting with a dunnart cell, you can edit in all of the DNA differences to turn it into a Tasmanian tiger. Think of it like turning a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone into a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. You can leave some of the words, characters, sentences intact, but you're going to need to rejig and reorder the text so it becomes a completely different book.

The first step is complete. Pask's group was able to decode the full genome of the Tasmanian tiger in a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution back in 2017. However, the work needed to mould one species into another is still at least a decade away, Pask estimates. "It is dependent on leaps in that technology over the next few years," he says.

The point of starting the TIGRR Lab is to use gene editing techniques developed at places like Colossal to make more immediate gains in marsupial gene editing, Pask adds.

He speaks specifically to one project: Gene editing in the quoll, an endangered species of carnivorous marsupial. Quoll numbers have declined dramatically across Australia thanks to urbanization and the invasive cane toad. Quolls love to feed on the toads, but the toad's poison can kill them, posing a major threat to the species survival.

Some of the techniques developed on the way to Tasmanian tiger de-extinction could allow researchers to engineer resistance to cane toad toxins in the quoll population.

Resurrecting the Dead De-extinction projects have drawn the ire of some conservation researchers, who have suggested spending big dollars on bringing animals back from the dead could actually result in a loss of biodiversity.

The argument against bringing species back is that there's a significant cost involved in maintaining the populations. For Pask at least, the Tasmanian tiger is a special case with obvious benefits. The environment it lived in 90 years ago hasn't changed all that much and it was the apex predator of its time. You could slot it back into the environment, he suggests, and immediately see the benefits.

It wouldn't be as simple as just breeding and dropping off baby tigers though. It's likely such a project would require intense monitoring and maintenance and the effects on the overall ecosystem are hard to predict. Understanding the complexities and the interplay between species is a key consideration – and any intervention would need to be discussed with stakeholders.

Will we see Tasmanian tigers roaming Australia in the next decade? It's hard to say. The pedigree of Pask's laboratory and the funding certainly puts humanity on the path to such a future. The biotechnological advances in gene editing demonstrate that we've entered a new reality where science has the power to manipulate DNA in a way that can, in theory, bring back extinct species.

As I wrote in 2019: With our power over the genome increasing every day, the question is no longer "can we resurrect the dead?" but "should we?"


TOPICS: Outdoors
KEYWORDS: australia; cryptobiology; cryptozoology; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; marsupial; tasmaniantiger; thylacine
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Camels, cats, rabbits and God knows how many other imported species fit into Oz's ecosystem.

If we are lucky, it will kill off the camels, feral cats and rabbits. The trick is convincing an apex predator not to go after other imported species, such as cattle, sheep, and humans.

21 posted on 03/02/2022 7:52:58 AM PST by Bubba_Leroy (Dementia Joe is Not My President)
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To: SJackson

Researcher. Lab tech, did you give the right RNA sequences to the subject?

Lab tech:. I thought you said DNA!

And that’s how Godzilla was born.

5.56mm


22 posted on 03/02/2022 7:56:23 AM PST by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho need to go.)
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To: All

Bring back the velociraptors!! They look cool.


23 posted on 03/02/2022 8:04:26 AM PST by BipolarBob (The roar of the masses could be "Let's Go Brandon".)
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To: SJackson

I remember Dolly the sheep disastor.


24 posted on 03/02/2022 8:07:30 AM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: SJackson

It would be great to have the technology not just to undo some of the damage humans have done, but also to preserve endangered species. In the case of the Woolly Mammoth, it might be easier given how closely Asian Elephants are related to them. In that case we could take Asian elephant embryos and splice in a few genes here and there rather than having to build the code almost from scratch.


25 posted on 03/02/2022 8:09:48 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: PLMerite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1CcPHF7qOc

Forrest Galante thinks there might be tigers in Papua New Guinea. I want to hear the update on this story. Hopefully he can get boots on the ground and investigate further.


26 posted on 03/02/2022 8:18:52 AM PST by CollegeRepublican
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To: KrisKrinkle

D.C. is full of Neanderthals.

Bring back T. rex!


27 posted on 03/02/2022 8:45:16 AM PST by bgill (Which came first, the vax or the virus?)
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To: bgill

“Bring back T. rex!”

Haven’t there been three or four movies demonstrating why that isn’t a good idea? :)


28 posted on 03/02/2022 8:50:56 AM PST by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of ignorance. Cursed be those who don't.)
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To: bgill
Bring back T. rex!

And Who's Next!

29 posted on 03/02/2022 8:51:19 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SJackson

Other than for a laugh, what’s the argument for bringing back evolutionary dead ends? Are we trying to save branches of human genealogy that didn’t produce heirs? Should we? Who will teach this creature how to be what it is? We’re not playing God but we are creating Adam and Eve for species?


30 posted on 03/02/2022 8:57:35 AM PST by newzjunkey (“We Did It Joe!” - The Taliban)
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To: CollegeRepublican

I had a buddy worked there. The biggest rule there was: Do NOT leave the camp. The rascals will get you! The rascals being the indigenous people (seriously, cannibals and head hunters) who didn’t appreciate modern men invading their forest.


31 posted on 03/02/2022 9:06:36 AM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
Thanks SJackson.

32 posted on 03/02/2022 9:26:06 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
So you bring back an extinct apex predator and release it into the wild. What could go wrong?

Let's ask the outdoorsmen of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming about how much they like the reintroduction of wolves.

33 posted on 03/02/2022 9:26:58 AM PST by CommerceComet ("You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case, the government forgets the first." Rush Limbaugh )
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To: Bob434

That proves they are related to Bigfoot!
Both share that ability!


34 posted on 03/02/2022 9:28:05 AM PST by Reily
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To: KrisKrinkle
uhh... CroMagnon is pretty much still here!

and if you have Northern European ancestry you've got about 3% Neanderthal.

Which is why I want reparation from you CroMaggys!!!
40,000 years of genocidal oppression is enough!

35 posted on 03/02/2022 9:32:04 AM PST by Reily
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To: SJackson

Resurrecting the extinct Tasmanian Tiger... to do what? Exist in a zoo for the enjoyment of school children? To release into the wild? If it’s that, then they’d better consider why the animal went extinct in the first place?

It’s the same resistance to intellectual thought that leads to the reintroduction of wolves in North American ranges near where livestock are reared.


36 posted on 03/02/2022 9:52:31 AM PST by Tallguy
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To: Reily

Lol- there are “theories” (actuslly they are just undeveloped hypothesis. They don’t even rise to the ,even of theory really) that Bigfoot is an a,in, and that is why they are ‘so elusive’

Been watching “monsters in America’s where they highlight legends and “sightings” and one of the shows was onmthe idea that Bigfoot is an alien because folks claim to have seen them just materialize then dissappear at will.

The show is nonsense, but fun to watch what some folks beleive. 99% of the people in the episodes of different supposed monsters siml,simp, misidentified ehat they saw, but swore up and down that they are expe3irheced enough that they couldn’t possibly have misidentified. Several of,the shows were of folks partying in remote cabins. Me thinks they ate the brown acid


37 posted on 03/02/2022 9:57:11 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Tallguy

[[Resurrecting the extinct Tasmanian Tiger... to do what?]]

Poop! Tasmanian tiger poo is highly sought after for facials and fertilizer. You too can sport tiger stripes if you so desire.

I beleive though it went extinct because of Hunting because hunters and tigers went after the same quarry.


38 posted on 03/02/2022 9:59:44 AM PST by Bob434
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To: SJackson

Can you imagine how the guys who own those high-fence hunting preserves in Texas must be champing at the bit for scientists to resurrect the woolly mammoth so they can sell a mammoth hunting experience? And how hunters like Ted Nugent and Joe Rogan must be champing at the bit to be able to kill a mammoth and have it stuffed and mounted and stand it in the foyer of their house?

And won’t the bunny huggers be apoplectic??!


39 posted on 03/02/2022 8:02:56 PM PST by Paal Gulli
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To: SJackson
"Well, that's good. What DNA did you use to cross this with?"

"This one here. Says it belongs to 'Abby'"...

40 posted on 03/02/2022 8:18:07 PM PST by Billthedrill
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