Can we get the Tasmanian Tiger back?

Officially, the Tasmanian tiger has been extinct for decades. But now an unusually well-preserved fur of the almost mythical animal has been found in New Zealand, which shows the intense colours of the animal much better than other finds and also provides fresh DNA. Barbara Barkhausen found out what this discovery of the fur of the exceptionally beautiful marsupial means to science and also explains to us again what the circumstances of its extinction in the 1930s were. She spoke to well-known Australian palaeontologist Mike Archer about the possibility that the Tasmanian Tiger might be brought back to life through the newly found DNA. The scientists are apparently quite confident about this.

Dieses gut erhaltenes Fell des Tasmanischen Tigers wurde gefunden. Source: National Museum of Australia