The genetic engineering firm Colossal is attempting to revive the Tasmanian tiger in addition to bringing back the woolly mammoth.
The Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research, or TIGRR, Lab at the University of Melbourne is collaborating with Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences to bring back the Australian thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), a predator that was eradicated at the beginning of the 20th century.
In order to finally produce an embryo, researchers will use CRISPR gene editing technology and the entire Tasmanian tiger genome from a preserved specimen from the TIGRR Lab. The laboratory has also located other living mammals with comparable DNA to supply the process's required cells.
“With this partnership, I now believe that in ten years’ time we could have our first living baby thylacine since they were hunted to extinction close to a century ago," said Prof. Andrew Pask, who oversees the TIGRR Lab, in a description of the project on the university's website.
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Colossal, which has offices in Boston, Dallas, and Austin, Texas, attracted notice last year when it revealed ambitions to use elephant DNA to revive the woolly mammoth.
According to Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm, "some people classify us as a mammoth company, but we're really a de-extinction company. So our goal is to focus on bringing back species that can have a positive impact on various ecosystems, and the Tasmanian tiger is definitely one of those species."
In other Jurassic Park-esque news, scientists from Shantou University in China and the University of Copenhagen recently unveiled intentions to revive the Christmas Island rat, a smaller animal.
Back to Tasmania
The ultimate objective for the Tasmanian tiger is to restore it in Tasmania, an island off the southeast coast of Australia that is also home to the endangered Tasmanian devil.
Pask wrote in the university's online journal Pursuit that, had the tiger not been exterminated, it could have prevented the development of a facial tumor illness that is eradicating the Tasmanian devil population since the predator attacked sheep and livestock.
According to Pask, who has joined Colossal's scientific advisory board, "if we look at the current environment in Tasmania, it has stayed quite intact." This indicates that it offers the ideal setting for thylacine's reintroduction, enabling it to reoccupy its niche.
'A long dog with stripes'
The Tasmanian tiger normally reached heights of 20–27 inches, lengths of 39–51 inches, and weights of up to 65 pounds. According to Colossal's website, it had a top speed of 24 mph and consumed small animals, reptiles, and birds.
Because of its long, stiff tail and large head, it was frequently characterized as looking like a long dog with stripes, according to Pask in Pursuit.
The tiger's young lived and drank milk in the mother's pouch like a marsupial. In other words, an embryo can be inserted into a host species and then be bottle-fed after birth. He asserted that "we can manufacture live creatures in a variety of host species and maybe without a host at all."
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