Stuff like that did not survive the first great extinction event, around the time of arrival of the first humans. The mainland was then occupied by mammalian dogs, and the remaining wildlife is adapted to that presence.
The Tassie tiger was an odd beast, but not really anything like a wolf. When dogs arrived in Tasmania, the local wildlife was completely not adapted to that kind of predation. This was a boon for escaping prisoners, who with a gun and a dog could live off the local wildlife, even though they were foreigners who knew nothing about local conditions (this was not possible on mainland Australia)
Many marsupial megafauna but not thylacines. Since Tasmania was connected to the Australian mainland in times of lower sea-level both Tasmanian Devils and Tas Tigers were endemic to Australia, and were isolated on Tasmania after rising sea levels cut it off at the end of the Pleistocene. The mainland remnants appear to have disappeared fairly quickly as recently as 3200 years ago.
The earliest reliably dated remains of dingo are almost exactly that as well. Could be a coincidence, but could also be a very short, sharp, one-sided contest for some specific components of the ecosystem that the dingo won every time.
He’s exaggerating, but there is a lot of interest in the Tasmanian Devil, AND the Devil is also a carnivore… so they would be attracted to the same place, by the same bait, etc. If they are looking for Devils … and find a lot of devils, and no tigers… whats the conclusion ? The confidence in the “no tigers” goes up with more and more negative detections, doesn’t it ?
Is this kind of thing just a pipe dream at this point? Has any part of it actually been done? It seems they have been working on the mammoth for over a year with no physical steps being taken.
The idea of cloning the thylacine has some history. There was a well-promoted, scientifically adventurous and probably over-optimistic attempt about 20 years ago that got nowhere. Two decades is, however, an eternity of DNA science so perhaps there is something to be learned from first project’s false starts.
The Mike Archer / Australian Museum project is discussed in detail here. Its a thorough accounting of the research and what went wrong. Its important to note that the author was not a journo but an employee of the Museum and may have their own specific take on events.
I honestly don’t think that’s the reason. They are doing it because they can or think they can, and wouldn’t it be cool to bring back an animal from extinction caused by human hunting? Unfortunately, several other species have also disappeared due to human activities, so the notoriety of the Tasmanian Tiger made it a good choice. It’s the poster child of human-powered extinction. A close relative of the tiger still living makes their job a little bit easier.
Is it worth millions of dollars to bring it back from extinction, assuming they can do it? I’d rather they spend the money on research of rare human diseases, but that’s not nearly as sexy as this would be.
The argument isn’t that there were other lions in zoos, it’s that the picture is of a toy or model, not a real animal.as people point out in the Twitter thread, that’s not a position that real lions hold their heads in.
It took me all of 2-3 seconds to find a photo of a lion in almost that exact position. And why, pray tell, would someone fake that? It’s not like it’s aliens or mermaids. There are thousands of easily verifiable photos of these creatures.
