1973 Liz and Gary Doyle "Thylacine" footage analyzed.

If any of you are actively tracking the "extinct" Thylacine (or any so-declared extinct animal for that matter), you've probably seen this footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCILrT7IMHc

This was the footage taken by a couple named Liz and Gary Doyle in 1973 of a possible sighting. The film is short, blurry, and as always not reliable... but this is the best footage existing after its declared extinction.

Below is a link to an article I stumbled upon at wherelightmeetsdark.com (the best website out there for rare Australian animal sightings) of the official footage of the caged Thylacine and the Doyle footage being analyzed side-by-side.

http://www.wherelightmeetsdark.com/index.php?module=wiki&page=HighestResolutionComparisonOfTheDoyleAnimalWithAKnownThylacineExample

Again, here's to hope and getting your hopes up!

Enhanced footage received

In late 2009 I was supplied with a restored version of the Doyle footage. I do not have details to hand of the work which was carried out on the footage, but can source these if requested.

This analysis uses the best quality version of the Doyle footage that I have seen to date.

Analysis

This analysis is a straightforward comparison between frames from the Doyle footage and David Fleay's footage of a thylacine circa 1933.

The following key diagnostic features, visible in the Doyle footage, are those that most pursuade me to argue that the animal in the Doyle footage is a thylacine, albeit on the mainland of Australia circa 1973:

• The proportion of the pes (hind foot) relative to other bones in the hind legs and relative to the rest of the body
• The proportion and posture of the tail relative to the rest of the body
• The shape of the hindquarters
• The depth of the neck and chest

The above features can be directly compared with known thylacine images and footage. Unfortunately there is no known footage of a running thylacine, so the "kangaroo-like" posture exhibited in multiple frames cannot be attributed to the thylacine with any certainty. The posture does, however, align with descriptions of the thylacine resembling a kangaroo or wallaby.

It should be noted that there are additional frames, not included in this analysis, which also show the key features being highlighted here.

Australian Thylacine; resurrected from extinction... almost.

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.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/a-cure-for-extinction/story-e6frgck6-1225757981767

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!

Thanks to Where Light Meets Dark.