Comments on: The Thylacine Museum

The Thylacine Museum

biscotti — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:22:15 -0800

The Thylacine Museum is a true labour of love. Everything you could possibly want to know about the thylacine (AKA "Tasmanian tiger" or "Tasmanian wolf"). Able to open its mouth incredibly wide, sit upright on its hind legs like a kangaroo, and a foremost example of convergent evolution (extremely similar to placental mammals like wolves, yet marsupial), the thylacine was a fascinating animal. Hunted to extinction in less than a hundred years (or not), a cloning project is underway to try and resurrect it. This site has everything: videos, Java-riffic skull diagrams, pictures of mummified thylacines who died over 4,000 years ago, and pictures of Benjamin, the last captive thylacine who died in 1936.

By: zoopraxiscope

zoopraxiscope — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:27:42 -0800

but it's really all about the diprotodon....i mean a wombat the size of a hippo? that's cool.

By: Marquis

Marquis — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:34:26 -0800

The thylacine can also spin around in a circle so fast that it forms a hurricane, and use this method to travel great distances with limited effort.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:43:34 -0800

Sad, sad, sad. Hopefully the cloning project works out (might get the dodo back, too). That jaw picture is my new wallpaper (tho' I had to go elsewhere to get it since right-clicking is disabled).

By: pizzasub

pizzasub — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:49:54 -0800

Wow...they're pretty serious about protecting the pictures on that page. The JavaScript that they use to munge the pictures if you click is even obfuscated...

By: byort

byort — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:50:45 -0800

Good one, Marquis! Did you find that fact where I found out that thylacines are physically attracted to bunnies wearing blonde wigs and bear traps for teeth?

By: evanizer

evanizer — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 12:52:34 -0800

These things are weird and sorta cute. I remember seeing a story about these on an Animal Planet show a while back, including a segment about the pickled one- which is actually quite beautiful in an odd way- that is being used for the DNA extraction. Here's hoping the project is successful.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:06:23 -0800

Thylacine=Tasmanian Wolf Taz=Tasmanian Devil brought to you by the Association for Nit-picking Anecdotes and Levity

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:08:57 -0800

Fantastic resource, biscotti. Sites like this are why I love the Web (and MeFi). That huge "threat yawn" is one of the scariest animal behaviors I can imagine. right-clicking is disabled Hell, it won't even let me hit the "Ctrl" button without throwing up a warning. In IE, you have to go to the Edit menu to "Find" text on these pages, or open a new browser, or anything non-copyright infringing that you normally use "Ctrl-*" to do. Talk about a ridiculously intrusive tactic.

By: UncleFes

UncleFes — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:50:03 -0800

Werewolf!

By: ltracey

ltracey — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 16:00:24 -0800

Thank you so much for this...excellent link.

By: Windigo

Windigo — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 16:16:20 -0800

Strange to think they weren't extinct all that long ago. I have this great illustrated animal book from 1910 or so, and there's an entire page dedicated to the Tasmanian Wolf- that was still around at the time. I wouls love to see a cloning success in this case. Usually I've leary or the whole cloning issue-but damn, we need these guys back!

By: beth

beth — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 19:11:41 -0800

I saw a special on the discovery channel about this cloning project recently. The people behind it seemed to be, well... a bit heavy on the hype and the "we're so incredibly brilliant for doing this, aren't we special" kind of attitude. It sorta rubbed me the wrong way. But then, what do I know? I wonder if all the money, expertise, and time that they're throwing at this project might be better spent working on a species that isn't extinct yet. What I mean is, choose something that has at least a dozen or so individuals, so you have multiple chances of helping a cloned embryo to implant in the actual same species, and work on perfecting _that_ technology before you start going way the hell out on a limb trying to get foreign embryos to implant in animals that are kinda-sorta similar (something which is failing 100% of the time now, from what I know). I mean, how many species are going to go extinct while these guys beat their heads against the wall called Thylacine? Doesn't make sense to me. Especially since the thylacines aren't getting any deader. Really.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 19:17:42 -0800

Interesting suggestion, beth, but it raises one question: why would you want to experiment with implanting cloned embryos into one of the few remaining members of a species that's near extinction?

By: Slithy_Tove

Slithy_Tove — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 21:09:04 -0800

[sigh] Slashdotted. I wonder how they'd look wearing kimonos?

By: realjanetkagan

realjanetkagan — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 21:14:08 -0800

biscotti, thank you SO much---I've always been intrigued by the Tasmanian wolf/tiger but I had no idea there were actual movies of it in existence! Remarkable to see films of them; heart-breaking to watch them pace. (Thanks vacapinta for the tasmanian devil movie, too.) I got half a dozen "fatal errors" watching the thylacine and tasmanian devil movies but they WELL were worth the screaming heebie-jeebies. ...I wish I believed that cloning could bring back an extinct species but I don't.

By: beth

beth — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 21:22:54 -0800

why would you want to experiment with implanting cloned embryos into one of the few remaining members of a species that's near extinction? Ummm, to make more of them? :) I dunno, there might be a scenario where it makes sense. Say you have one mother who is very successful at raising babies, and by making copies of her you get more successful moms. Perhaps that mom has a really great immune system or whatever, and that by cloning her you really increase your chances of helping the species to come back from the brink. Maybe it would just buy you a little more time, in a way. And maybe that's needed. Maybe one really great female (or male) with really wonderful genes that are well suited for survival, should take precedence over unknown genetic combinations when you have so few opportunities.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 23:41:08 -0800

Perhaps that mom has a really great immune system or whatever, and that by cloning her you really increase your chances of helping the species to come back from the brink. What I don't get is the need to implant the clone in a member of the "actual same species." Wouldn't focusing on perfecting the implantation-in-sorta-similar-species method make more sense? Multiple pregnancies are hard on an animal's body, so why put a member of an endangered species at risk? Then there's the real problem: habitat destruction. What's the point of helping species survive via cloning if we don't have anywhere to put them?

By: talos

talos — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 05:06:07 -0800

the site has been mefi-ed: "Due to an overwhelming increase in recent bandwidth usage, it has become necessary to temporarily close this site. My site's hosting service is not able to accommodate the current level of traffic."

By: biscotti

biscotti — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 07:10:54 -0800

Wouldn't focusing on perfecting the implantation-in-sorta-similar-species method make more sense? Yes, especially if it's a marsupial, which it seems are actually relatively easy to mix and match in this manner. In this case, it seems possible that they'll manage to clone successfully, since they have lots of tissue in reasonably good condition (preserved in alcohol, not formalin, so its DNA is preserved, but damaged) and a pretty good surrogate candidate (they're planning to use a Tasmanian Devil, another carnivorous marsupial, for egg donation and surrogacy). Interesting discussion with scientists here. Too bad the site's been mefi-ed, I feel a bit badly about that.

By: Tarrama

Tarrama — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 07:12:36 -0800

There is also a quicktime movie available here

By: rory

rory — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 08:09:25 -0800

You guys are making me homesick. More thylacine pictures here. The Weaver photograph is available as a poster from the Tas Museum; used to have it on my bedroom door, and not because I admired the hunter. There have been quite a few unconfirmed sightings. Eric Guiler's books are a good source. My dad still wonders about that stripey dog he saw in the rear-view mirror of his Land-Rover up in the northwest in the early 1970s.

By: rory

rory — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 08:22:48 -0800

A useful overview from Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, for those waiting for the main link to come back up.

By: rory

rory — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 08:38:25 -0800

Oh shit. I'd missed this news. 'It is estimated that 12-19 foxes may be in the State.' Damn it. The absence of foxes in Tas is about the only reason why the thylacine is the only mammal species that the state has lost since white settlement. Goodbye, pademelons and bandies. Who the hell brought foxes in sometime in the past year or two?

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sun, 04 Aug 2002 06:59:19 -0800

Psst...It's back. Shhhhh.