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Tasmanian tiger: Scientists hope to revive marsupial from extinction

Researchers in Australia and the US are embarking on a multi-million dollar project to bring the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction.
GETTY IMAGES / A Tasmanian tiger photographed in Australia's Hobart Zoo (undated)

GETTY IMAGES / A Tasmanian tiger photographed in Australia's Hobart Zoo (undated)

The last known one, officially called a thylacine, died in the 1930s. 

The team behind the bid say it can be recreated using stem cells and gene-editing technology, and the first thylacine could be reintroduced to the wild in 10 years' time.

Other experts are sceptical and suggest de-extinction is just science fiction.

The thylacine earned its nickname of Tasmanian tiger for the stripes along its back - but it was actually a marsupial, the type of Australian mammal that raises its young in a pouch.

The group of Australian and US scientists plan to take stem cells from a living marsupial species with similar DNA, and then use gene-editing technology to "bring back" the extinct species - or an extremely close approximation of it.


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Author: Editors Desk

Source: DW:

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