Thylacine

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), more commonly known as the Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian tiger, was the largest modern marsupial carnivore until it went extinct in 1936.[1] Thylacines first evolved around 23 million years ago[2] and had become practically marsupial dogs[note 1], both having adapted to similar niches. In their prime, thylacines were the apex predators of New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania, although Tasmanian devils likely preyed on their young.[3] More than 4000 years ago, Asian traders introduced dingoes to Australia.[4]. Dingoes and thylacines occupied different ecological niches (like the opossum eating in your trash can live in harmony with the raccoon also eating from your trash), but apparently shared diseases,[5] and thylacines became extinct on mainland Australia. A population persisted on Tasmania, but hunting continued, and in 1936, the species became extinct.

Part of RationalWiki's
Cryptid Petting Zoo
Hiding with Schrödinger's cat
v - t - e

Cryptozoology

Despite its extinction, some 3800 unconfirmed sightings of the thylacine have been reported.[6] In addition, there are the usual dubious photographs and government funded searches that turn up nothing.[7][8] Some sightings apparently even come from mainland Australia and New Guinea,[9][10] where thylacines have been extinct for literally thousands of years.[11]

Cloning and genetics

In 1999, a project to clone the thylacine began, and even claimed a breakthrough.[12] Unfortunately, the project was canceled in 2005.[13] Some work has been done since on thylacine genetics, including the sequencing of the thylacine mitochondrial genome, and possibly getting the nuclear genome for $1 million.[14]

gollark: Which galaxy?
gollark: Just break into his house and find the old versions on his computers' HDDs. Most locks aren't too hard to pick, and you can get around Windows security and stuff easily with a Linux live USB!
gollark: stalking™
gollark: What if that version of the mod was never publicly released and you just hallucinated using it?
gollark: So just reverse-engineer it from old versions, crashlogs and recordings!

See also
  • Convergent evolution

Notes
  1. Richard Dawkins once said in The Ancestor's Tale "...the skeleton [of a thylacine] is harder to distinguish [from a dog]. Zoology students at Oxford had to identify 100 zoological specimens as part of the final exam. Word soon got around that, if ever a 'dog' skull was given, it was safe to identify it as Thylacinus on the grounds that anything as obvious as a dog skull had to be a catch."

References
  1. ICUN on Tylacinus cynocephalus
  2. See the Wikipedia article on Nimbacinus dicksoni.
  3. Australian Museum: The Thylacine
  4. Mitochondrial DNA data indicate an introduction through Mainland Southeast Asia for Australian dingoes and Polynesian domestic dogs
  5. Lauren C. White; Frédérik Saltré; Corey J. A. Bradshaw; Jeremy J. Austin (2018). "High-quality fossil dates support a synchronous, Late Holocene extinction of devils and thylacines in mainland Australia". Biology Letters. 14 (1): 20170642. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2017.0642. PMC 5803592 Freely accessible. PMID 29343562.
  6. Australian Rare Fauna Research Association FAQ
  7. The Sydney Morning Herald:Tourist claims to have snapped Tasmanian tiger
  8. The Sydney Morning Herald:Mystery that burns so bright
  9. The Cryptid Zoo:Thyacine
  10. Scientists investigate Tasmanian tiger sightings by Mindy Weisberger (March 31, 2017, 1:25 PM) CBS News.
  11. Paddle, Robert (2000). The Last Tasmanian Tiger: the History and Extinction of the Thylacine. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53154-2
  12. The Guardian:Back from the dead
  13. ABC News Online: Museum ditches thylacine cloning project via the Wayback Machine
  14. NCBI:The mitochondrial genome sequence of the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus)
This article is issued from Rationalwiki. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.