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Post by lurcherman on Jun 28, 2013 6:53:59 GMT 10
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Thylacoleo Gal
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Thylacoleo Gal
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Post by Thylacoleo Gal on Jun 28, 2013 8:12:55 GMT 10
Good pick, Lurch!  The abstract is here --> Surprisingly, one can download the full PDF. We'd need to see the technique confirmed, of course. In science, it's not established fact until it's been done twice. However if/when it pans out, perhaps the first palaeo animal cloned might be a woolly mammoth? After all, blood was recovered from a frozen mammoth carcass only some months ago, was it not? This stuff really is moving from science fiction towards science fact. |
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Post by molloch on Jun 28, 2013 9:56:22 GMT 10
I have little doubt that we will see the first resurrected species within a few years. The first will be the Gastric Brooding Frog, or the Passenger Pigeon, but I fully expect the first Pleistocene animal will be a Mammoth. The melting tundra is exposing more and more specimens, and each one has material preserved better than the last. The last Mammoth found even had liquid blood preserved. www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tusk-tusk--its-a-woolly-tale-of-mammoth-blood-20130530-2nep2.htmlOf course, there is a bit of a time bomb here. Parts of the Tundra that have been frozen for several millennia are now thawing out. Viable Mammoth DNA would have to be found in deeply frozen, undisturbed animals. |
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Thylacoleo Gal
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Post by Thylacoleo Gal on Jun 28, 2013 10:27:18 GMT 10
Temperatures in the Arctic, from around 6000ybp to 4000ybp were considerably warmer than modern times. Even so, the tundra can not have thawed very much or else there would be no frozen mammoths for would-be cloners to find. The Russian & North American Arctic's present frigid conditions set in abruptly at the end of the Holocene Optimum, circa 4300ybp. A useful project for computer modellers might to simulate the physics of sub-surface permafrost: ice is dynamic and one wonders if long-frozen specimens are being slowly brought near to the surface by seasonal movements of the permafrost? Results from such models might provide leads on where to look for the next frozen mammoth.
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Post by youcantry on Jul 1, 2013 13:54:36 GMT 10
T rex? Didn't we get blood from that?
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Thylacoleo Gal
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Thylacoleo Gal
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Post by Thylacoleo Gal on Jul 3, 2013 6:17:57 GMT 10
Only in Jurassic Park.  |
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Post by molloch on Jul 3, 2013 8:05:10 GMT 10
In case you missed it, here is Mike Archer's latest talk on de-extinction, where he discusses the Thylacine and gives a Thylacine impression:
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Post by lurcherman on Sept 2, 2013 5:39:44 GMT 10
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Post by youcantry on Sept 2, 2013 12:54:24 GMT 10
Perhaps the technique could be attempted with a Thylacine bone, the DNA in the soft tissue available is suspect but there could be intact sequences protected by the calcium in the bone. Obviously we'd need to experiment on bones from more common species first. Who knows?  I thought relatively recently an American team showed that the keratin in hair protects DNA better than thought. We have plenty of thylacine hair/skins. |
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Post by tygeresque on Sept 2, 2013 21:29:24 GMT 10
suppose a thyla was cloned what would you feed it?  ?? if it survived to leave the pouch how long would it need milk feeds when would it start on real food and how would it be fed???/ |
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Post by molloch on Sept 2, 2013 22:05:16 GMT 10
Plenty of animals are raised on artificial milk supplements so that wouldn't be a big deal. It would be close enough to devil milk that it would not likely matter early on. Once it got too big for the devils pouch, you could start it on milk replacement. Baby mammals usually grow teeth when they are due to start eating solids, so this would be pretty easy, too.
Out of all the difficulties, I think this bit would be the easiest, and certainly there would be a big advantage raising a marsupial over a placental mammal in terms of a host - the gestation period is really low and neonates are born very similar in size between species.
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Post by lurcherman on Sept 5, 2013 5:37:26 GMT 10
Unfortunately for the cloning from hair idea there may be a problem. I hope I'm wrong but it seems not all the DNA is intact. Most questors will be familiar with this link as it has been on the site a couple of times previously, but can anyone explain why the Thylacine hair was problematical? thylacine.psu.edu/techniques.htmlAs I say I could have completely the wrong idea about the point they're making concerning the comparatively shorter nucleotide sequences. |
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Post by lurcherman on Dec 28, 2015 5:55:59 GMT 10
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Post by Ian Thomas on Dec 31, 2015 17:24:20 GMT 10
You'd need to find viable thylacine tissue cells ... seems unlikely.
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Post by lurcherman on Feb 22, 2016 5:45:22 GMT 10
A population of lions were recently re-discovered in Ethiopia that were thought to have become extinct decades ago. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35460573Hans Naarding experienced his Thylacine sighting at night; has any systematic night-time search been completed in Tasmania? www.cfzresources.com/database/cats2005/20050510_shock_at_destruction_of_tigersi.htmLampers in the UK when after foxes would simply 'salt' the middle of a field with a pile of offal, then they'd hide downwind from the bait and keep their hand on their dog's collar. Sweeping the light beam over the pile occasionally (usually when they feel the dog grow tense). |
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Post by Ian Thomas on Feb 22, 2016 12:08:32 GMT 10
Hans Naarding experienced his Thylacine sighting at night; has any systematic night-time search been completed in Tasmania? Pretty sure there have been night searches. It'd be the logical thing. |
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Post by lurcherman on Feb 24, 2016 7:05:40 GMT 10
Pretty sure there have been night searches. It'd be the logical thing. The problem here may be Nick Mooney, is he steering people towards the wrong kind of searches. |
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Post by Ian Thomas on Feb 24, 2016 7:53:44 GMT 10
The problem here may be Nick Mooney, is he steering people towards the wrong kind of searches. So then, errm, once the sweaty public have been sent off chasing wild geese, what's to stop the 'experts' from searching in the right places?  |
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Post by lurcherman on Feb 25, 2016 7:39:51 GMT 10
The problem here may be Nick Mooney, is he steering people towards the wrong kind of searches. So then, errm, once the sweaty public have been sent off chasing wild geese, what's to stop the 'experts' from searching in the right places? Perhaps it's the 'experts' who are doing the wrong kind of searches. Not baiting an area and lamping, for instance. |
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Post by lurcherman on Jun 1, 2018 16:52:26 GMT 10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2018 17:49:34 GMT 10
Yes and we should totally trust that.. and in the meantime ignore the many comments back in the days saying that their jaws were so strong it could easily bite through any limb. |
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Post by lurcherman on Jun 2, 2018 19:01:54 GMT 10
"Yes and we should totally trust that.. and in the meantime ignore the many comments back in the days saying that their jaws were so strong it could easily bite through any limb."
That remark seemed a little unusual to me too, that's the reason I highlighted it. Total length of 1.3 metres, half of which is tail also seems a little small. Still, the articles interesting for the advances in DNA techniques it describes.
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Post by lurcherman on Jul 5, 2018 19:57:59 GMT 10
These discoveries are coming thick and fast now. www.sciencenews.org/article/researchers-create-hybrid-embryos-endangered-white-rhinosFTA. Hildebrandt says that there are 12 frozen cell lines from northern white rhinos, six of which are genetically distinct – important for avoiding inbreeding. If researchers can turn these skin cells first into pluripotent stem cells and then eggs and sperm, it would be another way to create a pure northern white rhino embryo. |
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Post by lurcherman on Feb 2, 2020 4:12:15 GMT 10
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Post by lurcherman on Sept 9, 2020 6:17:41 GMT 10
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Post by dennisw on Sept 9, 2020 12:07:37 GMT 10
Maybe they could clone Pharlap too and win a couple of Melbourne Cups. Probably generate even more cash than thylacines and funding is what drives research you can only gain investment if there is profit in it.
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Post by lurcherman on Sept 10, 2020 6:09:26 GMT 10
Agree with you there Dennis, it's all about the cash flow. A zoo that announced its intention to clone a thylacine would practically be guaranteed a quick surge in interest and free publicity, yet success (if any) may be several years down the line.
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Post by vincewlb on Sept 15, 2020 18:23:57 GMT 10
Agree with you there Dennis, it's all about the cash flow. A zoo that announced its intention to clone a thylacine would practically be guaranteed a quick surge in interest and free publicity, yet success (if any) may be several years down the line. Where would that leave ethics in all that? Anyway, all this discussions is pretty much redundant as Thylacines are alive an well on the mainland continent and Tasmania and probably Papua New Guinea as well. Just so you know i wouldn't show the world any evidence of these animals living, i will refer to ethics once again, the danger being human nature. Money would be better spent on conservation of habitat however unconvenient that would be to some. |
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Post by lurcherman on Feb 25, 2021 6:10:33 GMT 10
Oh boy, this gets better. A team from half a dozen US institutes has successfully cloned a black-footed ferret. Importantly, the ferret died over thirty years ago. The exercise was carried out to increase the gene pool as the species went down to only seven known breeding individuals at one point. The kit is doing fine and you can read all the gen. at Physorg: phys.org/news/2021-02-black-footed-ferret-cloned-endangered-species.html One of the drawbacks with cloning the thylacine is that we only have dead matter to work with, (as far as we know). Now these organisations have achieved the cloning from a dead animal. Brilliant. |
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Post by Ian Thomas on Feb 25, 2021 20:08:17 GMT 10
Which probably means science can resurrect/clone dead humans .... might be an ethical problem or three with that?[
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?? if it survived to leave the pouch
