Scientists try to bring Australian 'tiger' back from extinction:
The scientist reached into an enclosure in the biosciences building at the University of Melbourne and pulled out a dunnart — a mouse-sized marsupial with huge, inky black eyes. [...]
The enclosure is part of the university's newly established Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab. A team of genetic scientists led by biosciences professor Andrew Pask is attempting to make the concept of "de-extinction" a reality. [...]
Here's the plan to bring it [thylacine, aka Tasmanian tiger] back: First, turn dunnart cells into thylacine cells using gene-editing technology. Then use the thylacine cells to create an embryo, either in a petri dish or the womb of a living animal. Implant the embryo into a female marsupial such as a quoll, and watch the quoll give birth to a thylacine baby. When the baby is old enough to leave the quoll pouch, raise it into adulthood. Repeat and establish a healthy population, with the goal of releasing thylacines into the wild.
"It is certainly feasible," said Owain Edwards, Environmental Synthetic Genomics group leader at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, who is not involved in the project. "Absolutely. What they're proposing to do, can be done. What isn't clear to anybody yet is: What exactly will result from it? Because it will never be a pure thylacine."
[...] The idea of meddling with the DNA of wild animals to save them does not sit well with everyone. Scientists, ethicists and environmentalists have raised objections to the idea of unleashing gene-edited creatures — including those that used to be extinct — without fully understanding the potential consequences. Cam Walker, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth Australia, says gene editing introduces new risks to ecosystems when people should be focused on preserving the natural world.
"We do not support gene editing in conservation," he said. "The entire process involves many random events whose end results cannot be predicted."
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:09AM (5 children)
Life, huh, finds a way.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:21AM (4 children)
So it's some kind of spotted rodent. Are there not enough scarey critters in Australia already? Now they bring them back from extinction. But then what is another on in the plethora that wants you dead. Still didn't they learn the lesson of bringing animals with/without predators there? What will the bring back to exterminate this rodent?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Mykl on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:32AM (2 children)
Not a rodent - a marsupial. And formerly a key carnivore in the Tasmanian (island at the southern end of Australia) food chain. Unlikely to be a major safety threat though - I think it was about the size of a medium dog. The predator that could make it extinct again is the same one that did it the first time - humans.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:14AM (1 child)
You know what they say - "life... finds a way"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 01 2022, @05:44PM
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday June 02 2022, @09:13PM
So they're starting with a quoll and going via a dunnart to a thylacine.
They're just making up a bunch of random words aren't they? We cross-bred a buster with a lute and got a quoll, then gene-spliced in material from a knarr and implanted the result in a dunnart, which we crossed with a burgle and a flort, and then got a thylacine.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:26AM (8 children)
How about bringing back Aus native HUMANS, you racist criminal cocksuckers.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:38AM (3 children)
But I thought you said race is a social construct? Well, which is it?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:45AM (2 children)
Where is it written that I said that?
Why do you love convicts?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @08:17AM (1 child)
Your original post suggests you have something against cocksuckers. Why do you hate gays and women (well, cocksucking women anyway)?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @03:01PM
Wait...those exist? I thought it was a myth.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:14AM
50,000 years without being able to get the population over 200,000 kinda suggests there was issues having highly-regulated polygamous tribal societies pre-Contact as well.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @10:34AM (1 child)
How would that benefit anyone?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @11:35AM
Hm... that's a good point...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @07:03PM
The world doesn't need Australoids (aborigines), you dumb fuck.
What the world needs is what Hitler was trying to do. Improve the Aryan race and populate the world with it, in reasonable quantities, while respecting nature. Peaceful, but deprecated, subspecies could go extinct over time or remain in quantities they can support themselves. Races that couldn't be good neighbors could be destroyed.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:12AM (2 children)
Oooh, ahhh, that’s how it always starts. Then later there’s running and screaming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @07:31AM
The Movie, in this case, is The Hunter [imdb.com]. Nice politics.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday June 02 2022, @04:00PM
That's because they spared no expense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @08:41AM (2 children)
there's no point in doing this.
the ecological niche that this animal fitted into no longer exists (it has been taken over by dogs/cats).
keep the DNA in storage and first make a place for the poor thing to live in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @10:37AM (1 child)
Maybe it's delicious?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Wednesday June 01 2022, @03:07PM
It's a carnivore. It's not going to be delicious. I *think* the only delicious carnivores are fish, though some people like frogs legs. Carnivore muscles tend to be tough and stringy. (Well, some say dogs can be tasty, but I've never tried one, and I suspect that the ones that were eaten were specially fattened, and probably specially raised. And, of course, dogs are the next thing to being an omnivore.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by UncleBen on Wednesday June 01 2022, @07:58PM (1 child)
This is all wonderful, march-of-progress kind of stuff up until the first one opens it's mouth.
Jebus, the only correct reaction to seeing a Thylacine yawning is to kill it with fire.
(So horrifying...so scary.)
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Friday June 03 2022, @05:19AM
I found some Thylacine yawn video at iflscience.com. It's much like a dog's yawn, not threatening at all. Much less disturbing than a cat's yawn.