Australian scientists have abandoned hopes of resurrecting the
extinct Tasmanian tiger through cloning technology. The project
made headlines worldwide when it was announced six years ago,
igniting hopes that other long-dead animals such as the woolly
mammoth might be brought back to life. Scientists at the
Australian Museum in Sydney hoped to recreate the Tasmanian
tiger, also known as a thylacine, by extracting DNA from a
number of specimens, including a 139-year-old tiger pup
preserved in pure alcohol. But the museum has been forced to
abandon the ambitious project after finding the supply of tiger
DNA too poor. "The thylacine DNA is far too degraded to even
construct a DNA library," said museum director Frank Howarth.
"The project cannot proceed to the next stage." The Tasmanian
tiger, a wolf-like marsupial with stripes across its back, was
driven to extinction by sheepfarmers who blamed it for killing
their stock. The last of the species died at Hobart Zoo in 1936.
The museum's previous director, Profess