Tasmanian tiger de-extinction research advances [Video]

It’s been decades since Australia’s thylacine, known as the Tasmanian tiger, was declared extinct and scientists say they’ve made a breakthrough as they research ways to bring back the carnivore.

Colossal Biosciences in a Thursday press release said its reconstructed thylacine genome is about 99.9% complete, with 45 gaps that they’ll work to close through additional sequencing in the coming months. The company also isolated long RNA molecules from a 110-year-old preserved head, which was skinned and kept in ethanol.

“The thylacine samples used for our new reference genome are among the best preserved ancient specimens my team has worked with,” said Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer and the director of the UCSC Paleogenomics Lab, where the samples were processed. “It’s rare to have a sample that allows you to push the envelope in ancient DNA methods to such an extent.”

Efforts to bring back the Tasmanian tiger

The preservation of a complete Tasmanian tiger head meant that scientists could study RNA samples …