Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 De-extinction Company Aims to Resurrect the Tasmanian Tiger WWW.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM The scientists who want to bring back mammoths now hope to revive the marsupial carnivore thylacine Quote The thylacine has long been an icon of human-caused extinction. In the 1800s and early 1900s, European colonizers in Tasmania wrongly blamed the dog-sized, tiger-striped, carnivorous marsupial for killing their sheep and chickens. The settlers slaughtered thylacines by the thousands, exchanging the animals’ skins for a government bounty. The last known thylacine spent its days pacing a zoo cage in Hobart, Tasmania, and died of neglect in 1936. Now the wolflike creature—also known as the Tasmanian tiger—is poised to become an emblem of de-extinction, an initiative that seeks to create new versions of lost species. Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based de-extinction company that made headlines last September when it revealed that it planned to bring back the woolly mammoth, announced today that its second project will be resurrecting the thylacine. Australian scientists have been hoping since 1999 to use emerging genetic technologies to try to bring the thylacine back from the dead. When the species went extinct, Tasmania lost its top predator. In theory, reintroducing proxy thylacines could help restore balance to Tasmania’s remaining forests by picking off sick or weak animals and controlling overabundant herbivores such as wallabies and kangaroos, some researchers say. But early attempts at cloning the animal from museum specimens’ DNA failed, and the effort has not attracted significant funding—until this year. Colossal Biosciences, co-founded by Harvard University geneticist George Church and tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm, is working with the University of Melbourne’s Andrew Pask, who has already sequenced most of the thylacine genome. The thylacine is the perfect candidate for de-extinction, Pask says, because it died out relatively recently, good-quality DNA is available, and its prey and parts of its natural habitat still exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 16, 2022 Author Share Posted August 16, 2022 Interview with company's founder and head of partner lab: De-extinction company sets its next (first?) target: The thylacine ARSTECHNICA.COM We killed the last thylacine about a century ago. Can we correct that mistake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 How close are they to resurrecting the wooly mammoth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skillzdadirecta Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Bah... Wake me up when they ressurect a Smilodon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Wake me up when they ressurect a Megalodon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentbob Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Bring back the DoDo 🦤 I hear they are fucking delicious, especially at weddings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUFKAK Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 I saw that Outer Limits episode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Instead of cool shit like this, Adam Newman has a new company with no business plan but hundreds of millions in funding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 45 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said: Instead of cool shit like this, Adam Newman has a new company with no business plan but hundreds of millions in funding What new company is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepee Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 I want this guy back actually, hope they can really pull it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclumber1 Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 Despite the ethical concerns, I'm still waiting for scientists to clone humans. Preferably, they do this with someone famous or noteworthy, like Einstein or Elvis. At the very least, we'll get to see how much genetics play a role in things like talent, intelligence, and demeanor. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSpreader Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 2 minutes ago, mclumber1 said: Despite the ethical concerns, I'm still waiting for scientists to clone humans. Preferably, they do this with someone famous or noteworthy, like Einstein or Elvis. At the very least, we'll get to see how much genetics play a role in things like talent, intelligence, and demeanor. I want to clone me and raise myself as my son so I can create a perfect me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 21 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said: What new company is that? 21 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said: What new company is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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