Just been reading about the lab work that's being done in the hopes of cloning thylacines, especially the recent apparent recovery of RNA from the 'head in a bucket' specimen

See: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/17/how-a-putrid-find-in-a-museum-cupboard-could-be-the-key-to-bringing-the-tasmanian-tiger-back-to-life

It claims that a "thylacine-looking-thing" could be born within three to five years. But surely this animal would not be Thylacinus cynocephalus, but something else?

And I guess by extension the same would apply to whatever mammoth or passenger pigeon or dodo lookalikes might come along over the next decades? Is there a system for naming cloned chimeras such as these if they are splicing the DNA of multiple species in order to achieve something that 'looks like' an extinct animal? In the example of thylacine cloning, the link above reports that the scientists would plan to use DNA from the fat-tailed dunnart to fill in the gaps in the thylacine DNA.

I've just been thinking about this and I'm unsure on how such animals would be 'classified' so to speak. Happy to have a discussion on this.

There were already basically extinct with only an estimated 5,000 thylacines even before 2,184 bounties were collected officially for their heads beginning 1888, and humans introduced a distemper like disease and dogs; nobody has seen one since 1936 - nearly a century ago. I need to repeat that; nearly a CENTURY has passed without a clear verifiable photo! Now there’s just a bunch of eye witnesses and click-bait fuzzy images which is just preying on people’s gullible nature. Let’s face the music people, they’re long gone. Zero hard evidence. Zip. By now there should have been a dead body or a verified location of a family.

Edit: I want them to exist but how many years need to elapse for people to face reality? 200 years? 1,000 years?

Other points:

1. 5,000 was just an estimate. It may have been only 2,000. People make mistakes. The evidence suggests it certainly wasn’t a massive underestimate, since now they have all vanished. People also forget the lethality of a farmer with a dog and that the number of bounties collected is a low estimate of the number killed.

2. They were relatively easy to find in 1888, even using the relatively low 5,000 number, now they’re impossible to find.

3. The only caveat people can provide is eyewitness testimony or grainy footage. If they knew where they were located, because they’d seen them, how come they cannot locate their dens? I mean if a farmer has a fox sighting, usually the poor thing is shot dead within a few days. How come all these smart sometimes even credible biologist eyewitnesses cannot do what a simple farmer can achieve?

4. What evidence would satisfy everyone? There’s no evidence that can satisfy everyone. There will always be a % of people that will believe in the Loch Ness monster, because we cannot use absence of hard evidence (like a body or DNA) as evidence for these people. They will say, this video here, this eye witness there, is cause for belief, but it’s never hard evidence, so this % continues to exist based on their belief in the relatively lower quality of evidence. Face it, we’re talking about a belief system based on faith of humanity to not lie or make misjudgment.

I believe the Thylacine is definitely alive. But I think we may be looking in the wrong spot. There are definitely none on mainland Australia, and if they were it would have to be something artificially moved there around Cape York by humans or I don't know, I only say this because Nick Mooney claimed a sighting there, it seems unlikely but it is Nick Mooney. Tasmania, could well have definitely have had them recently, I believe they probably survived there until late 20th century. Not 1936 as we believe. They probably died to out due to dwindling population and other causes. But. If they were to be still alive, 100%, they would have to be in West Papua. There are too many "confirmations" from local tribes and villagers. And they just recently rediscovered Singing dogs there. It is far too less explored. If they exist, we would only find them there. There was a Forest Galante video on this. But if you ignore the incredibly coincidental, almost cinema-like circumstances he talks about with Rose, it is definitely believable.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/rediscovery-of-forgotten-tasmanian-tiger-photos-sparks-excitement-233717581.html

This image is from the handy natural history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXCEsAh5rdI&t=662s

After posting this video, Neil Waters posted a picture from the video on his instagram saying "They just simply aren't extinct. This one in Western Australia isn't at least..."

But I have the question: Why didn't this find get more attention? Like it happened and everyone forgot about it in less than a month and it is one of the clearest thylacine videos ever taken though a trail camera.

If anyone know something, (e.g. it was disproven by experts, it was faked, ect) please let me know. :)

https://pulsetasmania.com.au/news/new-tasmanian-tiger-documentary-to-explore-the-ongoing-debate-of-its-existence/

A new two-part documentary series investigating the age-old question of whether the Tasmanian tiger is still alive will soon hit screens.

Local filmmaker Tim Noonan’s ‘Hunt for Truth: Tasmanian Tiger’ will explore recent and historic sightings of the thylacine, with the help of UTAS scientists Professor Barry Brook, Dr Jessie Buettel and Associate Researcher Kenji Sabine.

Noonan interviews many eyewitnesses throughout the series, taking his search as far south as the wilderness of south-west Tasmania and as far north as Papua New Guinea.

“People love the unsolved mystery, it’s like a true crime story that pulls you in,” Noonan says.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-sundays/hunt-for-truth-tasmanian-tiger-series/103956772

An "enormous amount of work, blood, sweat and tears" has gone into documentary filmmaker Tim Noonan's new series Hunt for Truth: Tasmanian Tiger.

Pitched as a "live investigation" series, Noonan said he hopes the public will actively engage and tell the end of it. 

Hunt for Truth takes the audience into remote parts of Tasmania and Papua New Guinea in the search for thylacines. It also features people who have searched for the tiger for decades or publicly shared possible sightings.

Noonan tapped into a University of Tasmania research team to access a sprawling trail camera network that covers remote locations in Tasmania. The network is for animal research but has the dual purpose of providing opportunity for a thylacine to be filmed, if the species were to still exist.

"I was lucky enough to go on a couple of expeditions," Noonan said. 

"It was so intense...these guys are next level."

Research team member, Kenji Sabine, said the remote areas can sometimes take days or weeks to reach. 

Tim Noonan and Kenji Sabine spoke with ABC's Lucie Cutting about their pursuit of the iconic species.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/etimes/trending/8-haunting-images-of-the-last-members-of-animal-species-that-became-extinct/photostory/110819255.cms?picid=110819685

Benjamin, the thylacine

The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was the largest carnivorous marsupial of modern times. Benjamin, the last known individual, died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, a victim of hunting, disease, and habitat loss.

https://youtu.be/IJuOn7JRnBk?si=XD8BjD93vfEaEund

A Tasmanian artist has collaborated with the University of Melbourne's 'Not Natural' science exhibition to create a space that poses the ethical question of whether we should bring back the thylacine.

TIGRR's research led by Professor Andrew Pask and backed by Colossal Biosciences, famed for wanting to bring back the woolly mammoth is progressing very well in relation to bringing the thylacine back from extinction.

They think that in 10 years time they will have a fully engineered thylacine cell.

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/experts-eradicate-claim-photos-show-real-tasmanian-tiger/

AAP FACTCHECK – An American tourist claims to have taken photos of a real Tasmanian tiger while visiting the Australian island state.

This is false. Experts say the images are clearly a hoax due to the animal’s anatomical inconsistencies with Tasmanian tigers, extinct carnivorous marsupials formally known as thylacines.

In a YouTube video interview with US-based wildlife biologist Forrest Galante, the alleged tourist, who uses the pseudonym “Zack” and has his face obscured, claims his supposed thylacine images are authentic.

The images have been shared widely on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit.