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A lab pursuing de-extinction of the thylacine partners with a genetics company
- ramesh31 4y agoIt’s amazing what an incredibly prescient work of science fiction Jurassic Park (the novel) really was. Before CRISPR, before Dolly, before the Human Genome, Crichton called it.
- jl6 4y agoThe 1982 paper that inspired Crichton to think about ancient insects in amber: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.215.4537.1241 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.215.4537.1241
- drcode 4y agoYour comment supposes that (1) not a lot of people were talking about the idea back then and (2) that we have made significant progress in cloning extinct animals I think a lot of people were talking about the idea back then and also we've had very little progress since then (despite flowery "news" articles like OP)
- dclowd9901 4y agoOne can’t help but wonder how much the movie influenced the work
- russdill 4y agoIt's an idea that's been around a long time. Even the specific idea of a dinosaur park with cloned dinosaurs is not novel to the novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cursed_Earth_(Judge_Dredd_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cursed_Earth_(Judge_Dredd_...
- ramesh31 4y agoThis is fucking awesome, thanks.
- wonderwonder 4y agoWonder if they are successful if they just go extinct again. Will they know how to hunt and reproduce? Interesting test of nature vs nurture.
- aetherson 4y agoThe claim from the researchers is that there has been a lot of success in reintroducing human-raised animals into the wild, and that for mammals, most hunting/etc behavior is indeed instinctive.
- bencollier49 4y agoAn interesting test of some of the claims about epigenetics...
- rpastuszak 4y agoWhy?
- waserwill 4y agoMy guess: if non-genetic heritable elements -- epigenetics (such as modifications to DNA) -- are necessary for proper development, then the DNA sequence alone will not be enough to develop thylacines. (There are caveats, notably that some modifications can be inferred). However, the scientists will also be experimenting with gestation and creating embryos from modified cells, so whether epigenetics specifically is a limiting factor will be hard to tell.
- bencollier49 4y agoYes, that was basically my point. There has also been some fairly fevered speculation about epigenetics being responsible for some types of instinct - even "cross-generational memories" and the like.
- dsign 4y ago
- kingsloi 4y agoWow, I was just reading about Benjamin, the last known captive thylacine filmed in 1935 > https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-footage-benjamin-last-tasmanian-tiger-ever-seen-alive-180975000/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-footage-benjam...
- RajT88 4y agoThere are periodic sightings of them. Although not with high enough confidence or documentation to say definitely, "They are still out there".
- jonny_eh 4y agoIt's not plausible that such a large animal can have a self-sustaining population in the wild, and not be properly detected by the scientific community for 100 years.
- RajT88 4y agohttps://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/extinct-thylacine-sightings/ https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/extinc...
- Zanni 4y agoTwelve animals thought to be extinct, some for hundreds, one for millions of years, before being rediscovered: https://www.treehugger.com/lazarus-species-extinct-animals-found-alive-4869279 https://www.treehugger.com/lazarus-species-extinct-animals-f...
- jhbadger 4y agoExcept that in general the "rediscovery" isn't something dramatic -- it's just a systematist in a lab looking at an animal known by many and realizing that it is the same species as fossilized/preserved specimens thought to be extinct rather than a common related species. That's quite different from finding a thylacine, an animal that couldn't be confused with anything else.
- rob_c2 4y agoIs this likely to be the first de-extinct animal which we can bring back does anyone know?
- mminer237 4y agoThe Pyrenean ibex was de-extincted for 7 minutes: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-bucardo-pyrenean-ibex-deextinction-cloning https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-buca... There are a number of other candidates, though. I would guess either the thylacine, the woolly mammoth, or the passenger pigeon would be first to sustain an actual population, but I don't really follow the projects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-extinction#Current_candidates_for_de-extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-extinction#Current_candidat...
- biodarren 4y agoColossal (the company mentioned in the article) is actively working on the mammoth as well --> https://colossal.com/mammoth/ https://colossal.com/mammoth/ Source: I work there.
- shellfisher 4y agoIt seems like the only “leap” is partnering with some other group. Which, yes, organizing is critical on large scale projects… but for those of us looking for a breakthrough, I guess we’ve been clickbaited.
- themitigating 4y agoThe submitter altered the headline
- rossdavidh 4y ago“We can now take the giant leaps..." says Professor Pask of the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab. Which is a lot more accurate than the article headline, which says that they _have already_ taken a 'giant leap'. I expect such exaggeration and overstatement from mainstream news sources; I suppose I should not be surprised to see it coming from a university website.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- zitterbewegung 4y agoAt least they didn’t say quantum leap…
- PopePompus 4y agoOr exponential leap.
- Tao3300 4y agoor Ti Kwan Leep
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoI wonder, have they asked the people of Tasmania if they want it back? It's Jurassic Park writ small.
- axg11 4y agoDe-extinction doesn't necessarily mean they will release animals back into the wild. Presumably a portion of animal behaviour is learned and passed down from the previous generation. Animals produced by de-extinction will be lacking these behaviours and perhaps best off in captivity.
- immmmmm 4y agoyes, this is something most ppl get wrong.
- foobarian 4y agoIt's too bad it would be highly unethical to run experiments with humans in tabula rasa environments. It would be really neat to see what different social behaviors emerge.
- robbrown451 4y agoIf they raise them in an environment where they have to hunt/forage for food, I don't see it being a big problem. You'd want to establish a population in a sanctuary for several generations before attempting it of course. Dogs and cats both can become feral pretty easily, and these occupied a similar niche despite being so distantly related.
- nickserv 4y agoThis is different since they were exterminated by humans, not by natural processes. It could be argued we have the moral obligation to bring them back if able.
- leeoniya 4y agothat taxidermy job should be redone. the head/face looks nothing like the real thing. it looks comical, like a bad sock puppet. https://earthlymission.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tasman-tiger-color.jpg https://earthlymission.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tasman... vs https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/4255339/varieties/large.png https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/4255339/...
- pimlottc 4y agoThe photos are from different angles, it’s hard to say whether they look that much different. Of course the muzzle is going to appear shorter in a front view and it’s hard to tell what the mouth line would be from the first photo.
- Tao3300 4y agohttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Sock-puppet.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Sock-pup...
- tmountain 4y agoIf they are successful, how do they navigate challenges related to inbreeding given what is likely to be a very small population of adult animals to work with?
- kibwen 4y agoSince the thylacine has been extinct for less than a century, they appear to be hoping that there's enough genetic diversity in modern preserved samples to eventually produce a diverse population. Even with a highly limited population, if you strictly control which pairs breed and aggressively pair the ones that are least related, you only need an initial population of like 16 or something to eventually reach a state where you have a large breeding population where most individuals don't share grandparents, at which point you can let nature take over.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoRandom mutagenesis eg radiation could be used to introduce diversity.
- thehappypm 4y agoAny thoughts on mitochondria? They are basically sub-organisms with their own DNA. Another organism’s mitochondria is going to be different.
- biodarren 4y agoOh hey! I joined Colossal Biosciences 6 months ago from a post on the Who's Hiring thread and can say it's an incredible place to work, with some of the sharpest people I've ever met in both the biology and computer science space. This is just one of several awesome projects we're working on. We're actively hiring frontend and backend engineers (React, Golang, GCP/multicloud). Drop a line: darren @ colossal.com
- dzuc 4y agoAnother thing William Gibson accurately predicted?
- mkl 4y ago> Australia’s only marsupial apex predator This is only true if you just count recent history. It's the largest to survive the megafauna extinctions after humans arrived, and was out-competed by the non-marsupial dingo after that was introduced much later. The "marsupial lion" thylacoleo carnifex (extinct ~35k years ago) was much bigger and more powerful, and "had the strongest bite of any known mammal, living or extinct". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacoleo_carnifex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacoleo_carnifex Australia had tons of much larger herbivores too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_megafauna#Extinct_Australian_megafauna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_megafauna#Extinct_A...
- jdkee 4y ago"He was watching one of Lev’s two thylacine analogs through the kitchen window.…Now it turned, in its uncanine fashion, its vertically striped flank quite heraldic, and seemed to stare at him. The regard of a mammalian predator neither canid nor felid was a peculiar thing." William Gibson, The Peripheral (2014).
- mattanimation 4y agoI worked with the CEO at 2 of his other start ups... Ben Lamm is a joke. Maybe some of the other talent working there knows what's up but I do not have high hopes for this working out.