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There are newspaper articles to that effect, but the actual work being carried out is not into cloning but gene editing.

No, as I just added to my reply, you were clear that you were talking about a separate approach. I assumed that we were talking about de-extinction Colossal style, but of course, whilst Colossal is at the head of this thread its title is De-extinction. My error.

In terms of Colossal though, it's CRSPR. And it's their project that seems to be causing the confusion. Edit: I see. Sorry, you clearly said that you were discussing an alternative approach.

I think we have to forget selective breeding, nobody at Colossal is talking about that. My point was that although what's actually being discussed are individuals composed of the edited DNA of other species, the company is making statements like "Colossal is determined to give the thylacine a...

Absolutely correct.

One of the techniques mooted for de extinction is similar to the technique used to create Dolly the sheep. I think that's what's getting lost in the communication of this project to the public. The nucleus of a cell is inserted into an egg and brought to term in a surrogate.In the case of a...

It can't have been that cage fat. Plus 51 kg (obviously that's not set in stone though) is out of the range for the species. It's right in the range for a big dog though. Add to that there's nothing in its behavior that's reminiscent of a thylacine, and it 45 years (ish) before the first live...

Update. There is a trace -"In dried skins the pouch is simple line that you can just about get the tips of your fingers under". So, you might notice it but unless you were looking for it a pouch, it's unlikely that you'd know what it is. That's providing it had already had young of course.

I know what you mean, but 1810 is far too early.

It just sort of happened to me without my notice. Now I spend everyday wondering things like that. But, to clear it up, if it died with a pouch that'll be retained after preservation. Preserved of course being different to taxidermied,which effectively ruins everything.

Honestly, I'm not sure whether or not there'd be a vestige left, but I'm not aware of any on the preserved skins. And this whole issue is one that's been back and forth recently. I think the question is probably whether there'd be enough for a taxidermist around wherever Ellendale was to notice...

Not unless it was carrying or suckling young, or, had a pouch which failed to contract after doing so (there is precedent for this in thylacines). Pouches are temporary structures.

I haven't watched the video, but I skimmed the Wiki article, so I'm an expert now. Not that any of the descriptions of the dog are likely to be accurate, but it's body was supposedly 51 kg, the average mean male body weight of a male thylacine was 19.7 kg, female 13.7kg. The Girt mut was...

No live thylacines had been exported by 1810.

Hmmm. What we should remember here is that de-extinction is a process which sets out to create an analogue, it's not resurrection or cloning.

Those stories aren't exclusive to Flores though, they can be found in Sri Lanka and North America.

I've always thought that this was a crap suit. I've just watched Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot, along with a couple of other rickety bigfoot documentaries from the 70s. I now think it's a fairly accomplished suit, but nothing like convincing. Absolutely, it's blatant.

Exactly.

Look at it this way. We, whales, elephants, cats, and bats, are all mammals. We have a common ancestor and are more closely related to each other than we are to any other non-mammals. If all but one group of mammals went extinct, the survivors would still be mammals. So it is with birds and the...

I watched this this afternoon, especially the second half which I had to miss because I had to go and pick somebody up. Gutted I missed that because I found it really interesting. I though the genetic engineering question was handled very well.

Agreed, snare type is a significant factor.

Y. Though I do have to stress that FG had no involvement with any of the inquiries made above.

Let me give you an example. I can't give names or locations but recently, a TV 'personality' claimed to have been contacted by a reliable source to be told that locals had recovered the body of an animal. For reasons I won't go into the source was contacted. They said that the yes this was true...

I'm not convinced. Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt that you saw what you say you did. But you said it yourself, This guy is a generalist hunter, however skilled, he's not spending large amounts of time targeting high value species he's hunting and fishing and taking advantage of a high value...

Possible, but given the demand I find it more likely that the majority of animals are not poached by skilled hunters.

Whilst the end product might be, the process poaching is very unlikely to be specialised, it's much more probable that it would involve indiscriminate snaring than a targeted pursuit. Also, I think its very unlikely that many of the kinds of cryptids reported wouldn't have those same properties...

People say that the Thylacine is the world's commonest extinct mammal but it has no real world meaning, it hasn't changed the fact that concerted searches since 1937 have produced nothing except for a set of prints from 1938.

Unfortunately poaching generally will. Where there's money to be made, there'll be dead animals. So, in addition to all the other special circumstances required for their continuing to elude discovery, I think we have to add how these species could exist in sustainable numbers, yet never be traded.

It's a wonderful bit of work and has cleaned up the film, unfortunately the colour is that of a faded museum mount. For a much more accurate idea of the colour Damir G. Martin's work is the most accurate.

I think that's because the quality of information that's communicated to the public has been so poor. The thylacine was not in decline in the 1930s, that ship had sailed decades before. By then it was restricted to a relatively small area of what was probably / possibly sub-optimal habitat from...

A response to the recent proposal that the last captive thylacine was a mystery female, whose remains were found in a cupboard at the Tasmanian Museum. The full paper is subscription only or has to be purchased from the journal, so I've linked to the ABC article. If anyone outside of academia is...

I understand, thanks.

I'm afraid I'm one of the people who know just how little we know about them, so it'd be the opposite with me, but I see what you mean. With its recent extinction date I think people mistake the thylacine for a fairly open case, I'd say it's just the opposite. They were so rare and disappeared...

An unremarkable discovery? Really?

It's a very complicated situation. There's reason to wonder whether the thylacine was functionally extinct by 1930. Nick Mooney recently re-examined some footprints taken by a Fauna Board expedition in 1938 and found that they were consistent with thylacines, but other than that, there's no...

No problem. Which one was it? Was it the filmed one? Have you heard this one with Peter Thompson, I'm not sure if this link gives the full interview, but if it is it's really charming, "I kicked him in the head a time or two and he couldn't just take it".

No, whilst Yorkshireman Wilfred Batty (born in Bradford) shot the last individual known to have been killed in the wild it was not the last Thylacine known in the wild. The Batty shooting occurred on the 13th May 1930 but two juveniles, a male (7th July 1930) and a female (3-9th August 1930)...

Thanks for that.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew of any folk tales which contain references to wolves and are likely to have been in circulation in Britain and Ireland during the 19th century. Thanks for reading.

It's from Griffiths, Malley and Brown, 1972 is about right.

Neath? Margam?

New book on the thylacine, first major one for 20 years. It's a multiauthor work including contributions from Lordmongrove and I. All royalties go to DFTD research. Available in Australia/New Zealand, UK, and U.S in physical or E-book form. I think you can get it pretty much anywhere...

The video "The Swansea Haunting" isn't connected to the poltergeist case. Although I did enjoy watching it Tycoch, where it was set, isn't on a mountain but a hill and I don't remember anything about this at the time.

I'm so sorry to hear this he was a generous and intelligent man. Between October and November last year he was helping my colleague and I with the analysis of some historical photos. We had to temporarily hold that piece of work but returned to it a week or so ago, I was just writing the...

I'm not sure that what he's doing isn't much more insidious than any of that.

I think there's a case to suggest that he's not aligning himself with mainstream science either, and presenting an 'individual' interpretation of what he's doing for a light entertainment programme. I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the difference myself.

Oh yeah. Sorry. I could say more but I don't think it'd be appropriate as I couldn't name the people whose opinions I'd be describing, but we're not alone in not being fans.

There are several concerns about Gallante, as highlighted in this article written by Branden Holmes, author, researcher, founder of the Recently extinct plants and Animals Database, and comedy chef...

Again, thanks both. Unfortunately in this instance the boundaries have changed a lot. But I agree, fences are a potential clue.

I have them all, and there's nothing to say where the buildings are in the relevant lot. But, I do see what I'm fairly certain is a building in the distance. There are only two places where this could be, west or north.