An extinct apex predator may miraculously be brought back to life thanks to a breakthrough in biotechnology, according to experts.
The thylacine, also commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger, was a wolf-like marsupial which scientists declared extinct almost four decades ago.
It’s understood the last beast of its kind, named Benjamin, died in a zoological garden operating out of Tasmania between 1895 and 1937.
83 years after Hobart Zoo closed, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia released restored footage of the evasive beast.
The 21-second clip was initially included in the nine-minute Tasmania the Wonderland travelogue, which was thought to have been shot back in 1935.
The monochromatic video – which has since been colourised – shows the thylacine pawing around its small enclosure while a voiceover explains the four-legged friend is ‘easily distinguished by its striped, unjointed tail’.
“[It] is also a dangerous opponent, though like the devil, is very rare,” continued the disembodied voice. “Being forced out of its natural habitat by the march of civilisation – this is the only one in captivity in the world.”
Unfortunately, Benjamin died 18 months after the video was made.
Before being wiped out, the carnivorous animals’ ancestors lived across the continent, but became restricted to Tasmania around 3,000 years ago.
Livestock farmers believed thylacine to be a threat to their livelihood, leading to intensive hunting and later its extinction.
Benjamin, the last Tasmanian Tiger, died in 1936 (AAP Video/Supplied/NFSA)
Other contributing factors to the demise of thylacine include the introduction of dingoes – a medium-sized canine – and climate change.
But scientists now believe they have the chance to bring back the Tasmanian Tiger from the dead.
Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based company, believes the predator is an ideal candidate for ‘de-extinction’, according to Sky News.
The business is aiming to tap into specific genetic engineering techniques and has already raised a staggering $235 million (£180.7 million) to fund research in 13 labs scattered across the globe.
Amid Colossal’s aim to bring back beasts from extinction, researchers at a museum in Melbourne have admitted to uncovering a preserved thylacine skull.
Professor Andrew Pask, the head of the thylacine integrated genetic restoration research at the University of Melbourne, claimed the head was found ‘in a bucket of ethanol in the back of the cupboard’ and that chunks had been ‘chopped off’.
The researcher stated that the finding is a ‘miracle’ due to it containing RNA molecules, which will help to reconstruct the creature’s genome.
“With this new resource in hand we will be able to determine what a thylacine could taste, what it could smell, what kind of vision it had and even how its brain functioned,” the collaborator added.
Efforts to bring back the beast are currently ongoing (AAP Video/Supplied/NFSA)
A year on from the finding, Professor Pask has said that the team is ‘further along’ than they thought they’d be in its ‘de-extinction’ process.
“We are further along than I thought we would be, and we have completed a lot of things that we thought would be very challenging and others said would be impossible,” he announced.
Previously, attempts to reconstruct the genetic code of extinct species have been unsuccessful, due to fragile DNA which breaks down over time.
But the apparent continued success of the thylacine’s de-extinction could see it being resurrected in the future.
Speaking about the genome, Pask added: “It helps us prove that what we are bringing back is genuinely a thylacine and not some hybrid animal.”
While it’s not known whether researchers will be wholly successful in their mission, Colossal Biosciences also plans to attempt to resurrect the dodo and the woolly mammoth.
