A team of researchers managed to isolate and sequence century-old RNA from the thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger.
it would attempt to produce a proxy species to the thylacine and introduce it to the forests of Tasmania, which, iconic extinct species that disappeared some 4,000 years ago and about 350 years ago, respectively.But all the talk of de-extinction is merely the backdrop of the recent team’s RNA research, not its aim. “Resurrecting the Tasmanian tiger, or otherwise said, its de-extinction, was not and is not the focus of our research,” Mármol-Sánchez said.
The thylacine was considered a good proof-of-concept target for the team, an idea that clearly paid off given the results. But researchers’ understanding of extinct and extant viruses could also benefit from this type of RNA recovery.
With the number of extinct creatures that sit in museums, RNA recovery from other species may soon follow that of the thylacine. Old DNA studies have come a long way in recent years—both in animals but also in
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