Extinct 'tiger' may live again

SYDNEY: Scientists hoping to bring the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life said on Thursday they were within sight of their goal after samples taken from a preserved pup were found to contain high quality DNA. The Australian Museum in Sydney has spent a year developing its cloning project after a perfect specimen of a Tasmanian tiger pup was discovered in a jar of alcohol. The Tasmanian tiger became extinct in 1936, but the Australian scientists now believe that there is real hope that the creature can be revived. They claim this is the first time that such high quality DNA - essential to the success of the scheme - has been extracted from an extinct animal, and believe they are on course to achieve a world first. The pup has been preserved since 1866, and last month tissue samples were taken from the heart, liver, muscle and bone marrow for analysis. Dr. Don Colgan (in picture, under a model of a Tasmanian Tiger), head of the museum's Evolutionary Biology Unit, said he was confident that the work had provided his team with multiple copies of nearly every Tasmanian tiger gene. The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, is in fact a marsupial wolf. It was given its name because of the stripes on its back and tail.

- @ Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2000.

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Section  : Science & Tech
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