<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/25/imagine-more-dragons-us-biotech-firm-aims-to-breed-tiny-australian-lizard-that-is-near-extinction>
"A US biotechnology “de-extinction” company behind efforts to bring the
Tasmanian tiger, woolly mammoth and dodo back from the dead is backing a
project to save a tiny Australian dragon.
The support from Colossal Biosciences for a project to restore the Victorian
grassland earless dragon – which was feared extinct before being rediscovered
in the wild this year – was announced as the company’s representatives visited
Tasmania to speak with officials about their plans and inspect a potential
thylacine rewilding site.
Colossal, a Texas-based “breakthrough genetic engineering” company, announced
last year it had partnered with the University of Melbourne on a
multimillion-dollar bid to bring back the thylacine, a marsupial also known as
the Tasmanian tiger. The last known thylacine died in captivity in 1936 and it
was declared extinct in the 1980s.
Colossal said it had committed nearly $300,000 to a Zoos Victoria program to
save the critically endangered dragon, which had not been seen since 1969 until
a chance sighting in the wild earlier this year. It said it would help build a
quarantined breeding centre at Melbourne Zoo, and work on sequencing the
species’ genome and mapping its genetic relationship with related species.
The dragon, a 15cm lizard that lacks an external ear or functional ear drum,
was once common in native grasslands west of Melbourne before its population
slumped due to habitat loss and predation by introduced foxes and feral cats.
Colossal’s chief animal officer, Matt James, said it was the first species to
receive support through the company’s “lost species initiative” to protect
threatened wildlife. “We’re starting to leverage some of the cutting-edge
technologies that Colossal has built towards a partnership with zoos and
governments in order to protect endangered species,” he said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
