(JERUSALEM POST) — A collaborative effort by scientists, entrepreneurs and the Hemsworth brothers is being made to bring the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life through genetic engineering.
The effort is helmed by Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering and de-extinction company founded in 2021 by scientist George Church and entrepreneur Ben Lamm, and the University of Melbourne’s Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab, headed by Andrew Pask. Also supporting this are other investors, among them the famed Australian celebrity actor brothers Chris, Liam and Luke Hemsworth.
Also known as a thylacine or sometimes as the Tasmanian wolf, the Tasmanian tiger was a carnivorous animal that lived in Australia as well as the neighboring islands of New Guinea and Tasmania. The name thylacine is from its scientific name Thylacinus cynocephalus, which means dog-headed pouched-dog.