Using the genome editing technique that won the Nobel Prize, Crispr-Cas9, extinct animals like the Tasmanian tigers could be brought back from the dead.
Thylacines sometimes referred to as Tasmanian tigers, roamed Australia millions of years ago. These dog-like, striped creatures, which were about the size of an American coyote, vanished from the mainland about 2,000 years ago. They stayed in Tasmania until the 1920s when European colonists who perceived them as a threat to livestock killed them.
"It was a human-driven extinction – European settlers came to Australia and brutally obliterated this animal," says Andrew Pask, a geneticist at the University of Melbourne.
Scientists under the direction of Pask are working with Colossal Biosciences, a company dedicated to "de-extinction," to resurrect the wolf-like creature.
The thylacine is not the only extinct animal that may soon be seen again thanks to genetic discoveries in recent years, including the development of the...
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