Scientists have successfully extracted RNA molecules from an extinct species for the first time. The milestone was achieved in the thylacine, a species of carnivorous marsupial that roamed Australia until about a century ago – and may again one day, if current plans bear fruit.
Once widespread across Australia, the thylacine spent the last few millennia of its existence isolated on the island of Tasmania. There, it proved easy pickings for the first European colonizers who regarded it as a pest to their farmland and killed them systematically. After a few decades the creature’s trajectory became clear, and government protections were eventually implemented – but it was far too little too late, and the last known specimen died in captivity in 1936.
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Given the freshness of its extinction (and perhaps a healthy dose of guilt), the thylacine is on the shortlist of species set for “de-extinction.” Along with the mammoth and the dodo, genetics company Colossal Biosciences has declared its intention to resurrect the thylacine through genetic engineering techniques.
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