Tasmania tiger Or Thylacine
Scientists in the US and Australia have embarked on a $15-million project to resurrect the thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, a marsupial that went extinct in the 1930s, using gene-editing technology.
Tasmanian Tiger
The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine (a dog-headed pouched dog) was an exclusively carnivorous marsupial that is considered to be extinct.
It has a resemblance to a dog, with its distinguishing features being the dark stripes beginning at the rear of its body and extending into its tail, its stiff tail and abdominal pouch.
The last known thylacine died in captivity over 80 years ago, in Tasmania's Hobart Zoo in 1936.
It may also be the only mammal to have become extinct in Tasmania since the European settlement.
Why did they become extinct?
It was confined to Tasmania in recent times and disappeared from mainland Australia over 2000 years ago, mainly because of over-hunting by humans, diseases and competition from the Dingo (Canis lupus), a wild dog native to Australia.
The Thylacine was also persecuted because it was believed to be a threat to sheep and in its latter years it was hunted for the purposes of collection by museums and zoos.
As per some accounts, the introduction of sheep in 1824 led to a conflict between the settlers and thylacine.
Why in news?
The ambitious project aims to reintroduce the animal to its native place Tasmania to revive the region's lost ecological balance.
Interestingly, this is not the first attempt to revive thylacines.
In 1999, an Australian scientist, Dr Michael Archer, embarked on an unsuccessful journey to resurrect the animal using cloning technology from a perfectly preserved specimen in a museum.
The resurrection process
Even though the last living thylacine died over 86 years ago, many embryos and young specimens of the species have been preserved.
Scientists will be using a genome sequenced from a DNA extracted from a 108-year-old specimen held at Australia's Victoria Museum.
This genome will be compared with the closest living animal of the species- the fat tailed dunnart to identify all the differences.
Once all the differences are identified, scientists will engineer the living cell's DNA where it is different, essentially engineering the extinct species back.
The fat-tailed dunnart is a mouse-like species in the Dasyuridae family in Australia. With an average body length of 2.4-3.5 inches, they are one of the smallest carnivorous marsupials.
Criticisms of the move
Researchers have raised concerns about the practicality of the technology.
De-extinction is a fairytale science a/c to them and is more about media attention for the scientists and less about doing serious science.
Back2Basics: De-extinction technology
De-extinction, or resurrection biology, is the method of creating a species that went extinct or is endangered, in order to revitalise ecological diversity and balance shattered due to reasons ranging from biodiversity loss to climate change.
While cloning is the most widely used method of de-extinction, genome editing and selective breeding are also considered effective ways.
The Pyrenean ibex, a subspecies of Spanish ibex, was one of the first extinct animals that have been resurrected using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
However, the baby Ibex died minutes after its birth from lung defect.
One of the challenges of de-extinction is that reintroducing the species to its former habitat may make it an invasive species, which will also impact the balance of the current ecological system.
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