Thylacine

(Jrt)

Thylacine
The marsupial wolf, or thylacine, or Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian tiger was a carnivorous marsupial mammal about the size of a wolf, peeling Tigre, species considered extinct since 1936.

Its scientific name is Thylacine, the family of thylacinidés. He was the last surviving species of its kind, but there were numerous fossils of species nearby, the most recent in the early Miocene.

There was widespread in Australia and New Guinea-there are several thousands of years, but reduced its habitat disruptions to Tasmania in the south-eastern Australia, including the introduction of the dingo by Aboriginal to the 3rd millennium av. AD. They attribute his death to his Tasmanian intensive hunting encouraged by premiums slaughter, but there was also the introduction of dogs and rooting settlers in the wild.

The thylacine appeared to thrive on all species of animals, such as kangaroos, wallabies and birds nesting on land. It was night, or rather semi-nocturnal, and was moving slowly, and was "left" in their movements. He usually hunted alone.

Description
* His head and his teeth resemble those of a wolf, with a mouth that can open up to 120 degrees,
* His jaw, very powerful and contains 46 teeth.
* The ears are short and straight.
* His coat is yellow-brown with dark brown lines on the back, the rear-gear and the tail.
* Its tail is a bit like that of a kangaroo and measuring 50 cm.
* Like all marsupials, the female has a pouch to which newborns (4 average) rushing to crawl to cling to an udder and continue their growth.

Its measurements (the male is larger than females):

* Length: 1.50 m to 1.80 m
* Height: 56 cm
* Weight: 20 to 25 kg

The thylacine was discovered by Europeans in 1805, but his character and his physical being close to the wolf, the European settlers exterminèrent, especially since he was attacking sheep and poultry. George Prideaux Robert Harris (1775-1810) who gives his description to the Linnaean Society of London from two males, probably caught through traps filled with kangaroo meat.

Extinction
The latest release thylacine was killed in 1931 and the last one died in captivity on September 7, 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Australia. The thylacine is considered an officially extinct species on the planet since 1986. Specimens of thylacine would have been observed on several occasions but no evidence has ever been brought to light.

Draft cloning
The Australian Museum in Sydney has started a cloning project in 1999. The goal was to use genetic material taken from specimens preserved in the early twentieth century, including an embryonic thylacine preserved in ethanol since 1866, in order to clone new individuals and restore the species.

Most experts believe, however, that this project, estimated to cost $ 48 million, is not feasible (20% chance of success). [Ref. Arrival] Several serious microbiologists have left the project when Professor Mike Archer, director of the museum at the time, was nominated in 2002 for the Bent Spoon Award, a pseudo-reward attributed to the pseudo-scientific ideas or paranormal seemed the most absurd.

In 2002 researchers on the project were able to extract DNA from replicable specimens. On 15 February 2005, the museum announced that it stopped the project after tests have shown that the DNA collected was too degraded to be used. In May 2005, Professor Michael Archer, Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales, formerly director of the Australian Museum and researcher in evolutionary biology, announced that the project would be revived by a group of universities interested in a research institute.

The International Thylacine Specimen Database (ITSD) has been completed in April 2005 and is the culmination of a research project four years to catalogue and photograph, if possible, all known specimens of Thylacine preserved in museums, universities or private collections.

Read also Tasmania Devil

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