Australian scientists want to use advanced genetic engineering techniques to resurrect a Tasmanian tiger – also known as a thylacine.
The lab at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with a Dallas-based genetics firm called Colossal Biosciences are perusing the project.
Scientists want to use the genome of the fat-tailed dunnart, a small marsupial animal closely related to the Tasmanian tiger as the base for the recreated genome. They believe a living baby thylacine could see the light of day in about a decade.
The thylacine was wiped out in Tasmania by human hunters and new animal competitors like dingos in the first half of the 20th century.