Scientists one step closer to resurrecting Tasmanian tiger that went extinct 100 years ago

The Tasmanian tiger, which had gone extinct almost 100 years ago, may again roam on the face of the Earth as scientists have recovered the RNA sample that can help resurrect the carnivorous animal, officially known as a thylacine.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a genetic material present in all living cells and has structural similarities to DNA.

Scientists plan to harness the advances in genetics, ancient DNA retrieval and artificial reproduction to bring back the extinct animal.

Theyrecovered the RNA from the desiccated skin and muscle of a Tasmanian tiger stored since 1891 at a museum in Sweden.

“We would strongly advocate that first and foremost we need to protect our biodiversity from further extinctions, but unfortunately we are not seeing a slowing down in species loss,” said Andrew Pask, a professor at the University of Melbourne and head of its Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab, who is leading the initiative, reports CNN.

“This technology offers a chance to correct this and could be applied in exceptional circumstances where cornerstone species have been lost,” he added.

The initiative is being undertaken through collaboration with Texas-based Colossal Biosciences, founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church.

Both have spent nearly $15 million to bring back the woolly mammoth in an altered form.

The Tasmanian tiger, which is about the size of a coyote, disappeared around 2,000 years ago everywhere except the Australian island of Tasmania.

As the only marsupial apex predator that lived in modern times, it played a key role in its ecosystem, but that also made it unpopular with humans.

The shy and semi-nocturnal Tasmanian tigers were hunted by the European settlers in Australia in the 1800s who blamed them for livestock losses.

However, there has been no proof to attribute the losses of livestock to the Tasmanian tigers.

Thelast thylacine living in captivity,named Benjamin, died from exposure in 1936 at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. This monumental lossoccurred shortly after thylacines were granted protected status, but it was too late to save the species.

Aside from the tiger-like stripes on its back, the Tasmanian tiger resembled a wolf. The arrival of people in Australia roughly 50,000 years ago ushered in massive population losses.

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