A thylacine or ‘Tasmanian tiger’ in captivity, circa 1930. These animals are considered extinct, as the last known wild thylacine was shot in 1930 and the last captive died in 1936.
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Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
A thylacine or ‘Tasmanian tiger’ in captivity, circa 1930. These animals are considered extinct, as the last known wild thylacine was shot in 1930 and the last captive died in 1936.
Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
For anyone who chronically misplaces keys, phones, and wallets, here’s a story.
Researchers from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, Tasmania, have finally found the long-lost remains of the last known Tasmanian tiger, which has been missing for more than 85 years.
Because the specimen was obtained in a somewhat shady form in the 1930s, its skeleton and skin were hidden in a cupboard at the museum, where experts lost track of it.
“For years, many museum curators and researchers have searched for its remains, but unsuccessfully, as no thylacine material has been recorded from 1936,” said researcher Robert Paddle. Declaration.
“It was assumed that his body was dumped,” he added.
According to Paddle, the thylacine, believed to be the last of its kind, was an old female animal that was captured by an Australian hunter and sold to a zoo in May 1936. time, location-based trap was illegal and [the trapper] He could have been fined,” Paddle explained.
When the captive creature died a few months later, his body was transferred to the museum.
Dr. Kathryn Medlock, Honorary Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, said they knew they had found the missing remains after the museum taxidermist discovered an unpublished 1936/37 report that mentioned a thylacine among specimens studied throughout the year. .
The Tasmanian tiger is extinct, but it may not stay that way
Although the Tasmanian tiger has disappeared from the planet, it is possible to roam the world once again.
Earlier this year, NPR reported “extinction” company Colossal Biosciences announces plans to genetically resurrect the odd-looking creature—despite its name, not even remotely related to a tiger.
The four-legged animal is actually a marsupial, in the same family as kangaroos, and appears to be a mix of several species. The tail of a bare opossum, the body of a wolf with a striped back, the pinched face of a fox and and a pouch on his stomach. Voila: Tasmanian tiger, also called Tasmanian wolf.
In Australia and Tasmania, hunting was promoted by the government to protect cattle and not surprisingly led to the rapid extinction of the species. But scientists discovered in 2017 that: and lack of genetic diversity caused it to fall.
A study published in the journal Nature found that a sharp decline in diversity began between 70,000 and 120,000 years ago.
If Colossal manages to bring the Tasmanian tiger back, it will be something completely new. Species. The plan is to “create a hybrid animal using CRISPR gene-editing technology to insert reclaimed thylacine DNA fragments into the genome of a Dasyurid – a family of carnivorous marsupials such as the nubat and the Tasmanian devil, which are the extinct animal’s closest relatives.”
