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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 12 2017, @04:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the their-genes-should-have-worked-out-more dept.

Tasmanian tigers were suffering from poor genetic diversity prior to being hunted to extinction by humans:

Australian scientists sequenced the genome of the native marsupial, also known as the thylacine. It showed the species, alive until 1936, would have struggled to survive even without human contact. The research also provides further insights into the marsupial's unique appearance.

"Even if we hadn't hunted it to extinction, our analysis showed that the thylacine was in very poor [genetic] health," said lead researcher Dr Andrew Pask, from the University of Melbourne. "The population today would be very susceptible to diseases, and would not be very healthy."

He said problems with genetic diversity could be traced back as far as 70,000 years ago, when the population is thought to have suffered due to a climatic event.

The researchers sequenced the genome from a 106-year-old specimen held by Museums Victoria. They said their study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, is one of the most complete genetic blueprints of an extinct species.

Genome of the Tasmanian tiger provides insights into the evolution and demography of an extinct marsupial carnivore (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0417-y) (DX)

Related: Huge Population and Lack of Genetic Diversity Killed Off the Passenger Pigeon


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 12 2017, @09:49PM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday December 12 2017, @09:49PM (#608957) Journal

    Forgot to add this to the article:

    Huge Population and Lack of Genetic Diversity Killed Off the Passenger Pigeon [soylentnews.org]

    Plenty of things get hunted or killed off by humans, sure. Lack of genetic diversity could be a factor that pushes populations over the edge and into extinction.

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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday December 13 2017, @01:08AM (2 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 13 2017, @01:08AM (#609036) Journal

    [previous pigeon story +] Lack of genetic diversity could be a factor that pushes populations over the edge

    Quoting the first comment appearing on that pigeon story, attributed to Grishnakh (2831):

    Lacking genetic diversity is of course a problem, but when your species is being annihilated by a technological race of murderous, genocidal maniacs who kill for sheer fun, I'm not sure a little extra diversity would have helped much.

    That encapsulates what I was trying to say pretty well.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13 2017, @10:18AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13 2017, @10:18AM (#609172)

      A little predation keeps population genetics in shape. Extinction results from abrupt changes, when bar is suddenly raised too high and entropy (mutations) rate can't keep up - a problem similar to cryptographic security.
      So, I guess that geologic periods with explosion of species were probably periods of presence of additional sources of entropy - either radiation, or mutagen chemical agents, or retroviruses.
      It seems like we should have had a nuclear war to pay our dues to the nature and introduce more diversity.

      • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday December 13 2017, @05:25PM

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 13 2017, @05:25PM (#609280) Journal

        It seems like we should have had a nuclear war to pay our dues to the nature and introduce more diversity.

        Well, the 30km Chernobyl exclusion zone and wildlife preserve is one area where we are doing this, and the Pacific ocean off the coast of Japan near Fukushima is another. Perhaps outright war isn't necessary.