Long-Lost Remains Of Last Tasmanian Tiger Found In Museum Cupboard
The remains of an extinct animal known as the Tasmanian Tiger have been found in a rather odd location: stashed at the back of an old cupboard in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
The animal’s corpse had been missing for 85 years by the time it was found. The museum notes that it was lost primarily because it kept no official records of the artifact.
For those unaware of its prior existence, the Tasmanian tiger is officially known as a thylacine. It is a marsupial with the face of a fox, a kangaroo pouch, a wolf’s body, and tiger’s stripes. This amalgamation of animals made it highly sought after, especially since poaching was encouraged by the Australian government at the time to protect cattle.
The long-hidden creature was a female and the very last of its kind. It was caught by an Australian trapper and sold to a zoo.
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At the time, ground-based snaring was illegal, and the museum intentionally did not record the procurement of the remains to prevent the trapper from being jailed.
After 85 years of searching for the bones and skin, it was finally found through an unpublished museum taxidermist’s report from 1936-1937. In the report, the thylacine was listed among the specimens. That led the museum to finding the thylacine hidden within a cupboard in its archives.
With that being said, there are talks to bring the Tasmanian tiger back to life. A company called Colossal Biosciences is looking into reviving the animal and turning it into a hybrid by splicing its genes with its closest living relative, the Tasmanian Devil.
[via NPR and CNN, cover illustration 173722565 © Daniel Eskridge | Dreamstime.com]
