For about the last 70 years the most active you were likely to see a tasmanian tiger was pacing the 12 inches back and forth from a Aussie’s mouth to a bar-top. That’s because though the thylacine continues to grace the label (and commercials) of Cascade Premium Lager the last living specimen died in captivity in 1936. Alas the tasmanian tiger was hunted to extinction, never to stretch its weirdly gigantic maw again. Or so humanity thought (cue the flash pots and castle thunder) until now!
Quote: For the first time DNA from an extinct species, Australia’s marsupial Tasmanian Tiger, has been used to induce a functional response in a living organism, a mouse embryo, Australian and American scientists said.
The scientists extracted DNA from a 100-year-old Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine, which had been preserved in ethanol in a museum, and injected it into a mouse embryo where it was “expressed” or produced in cartilage. -Reuters.
Oh, here’s the little bugger now.
Ah the miracle of quivering, jar-born abominations! Ace! (as the Australian slang dictionary assures me an Aussie might exclaim.) So are we going to revive the species with thingamabobs and whosamawhats and lightening? No. Not any time soon at least. But this is still a “corker.” I heart you science.