The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). An animal that has terrified me, baffled me and deeply interested me ever since I could remember. I don't remember how I found out about the animal when I was little, but I was shocked and depressed when I discovered it had been extinct since 1936.
After the bounty that had been placed on their heads, the last known Thylacine ("Benjamin" as it was named - though the sex was unconfirmed) was captured and sent to the Hobart Zoo in 1933.
It's obvious why this animal was bountied; it was one of the largest carnivorous marsupials known to that time. Its jaws were abnormally large and wide. The stripes on its back would make one think of a tiger (hence Tasmanian tiger). Above all people during that time did not have the knowledge of animals, the balance of nature, extinction and science that we do now.
But now that we understand and the animal is extinct... what do we do?
None of us can do much besides study at the evidence that they had left behind.
One man, former Science dean of the University of NSW, is trying to change that. How? By the science of cloning.
When he was director of the Australian Museum, Archer set off, armed with gene technology, in the hope that he could bring back a Tasmanian tiger or thylacine. Others continue that hunt while Archer has fixed his sights on another extinct native; he will not say which: "The team that's been working on this now for three years has sworn in blood that we won't mention what it is."But the optimists on the team, and Archer is one of them, think they may be ready to go public with a world first as soon as this year. Already, he says, they have managed to get the animal's DNA to reactivate, an essential step on the path to cloning. He is cagey when asked why this unidentified animal is a better prospect than the thylacine: "Suffice it to say, we're working with slightly better material."
Here's to hope, many breakthroughs and success!
