Australian museum drops bid to clone extinct Tasmanian "tiger"

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2005

SYDNEY (AFP) — The Australian Museum has abandoned an ambitious attempt to clone an extinct marsupial known as the "Tasmanian tiger", or thylacine.

The project to clone the animal using DNA recovered from a pickled thylacine pup was started in 1999 by the museum's then-director, Mike Archer.

But the Sydney museum's current boss, Frank Howarth, admitted Tuesday to the national broadcaster ABC that the quality of the DNA was too poor to work with.

He said that while the museum had the expertise needed to construct a DNA library for the thylacine, it lacked the facilities and skills to conduct "further stages requiring cell culture".

"The museum's future involvement in the thylacine project has been re-evaluated," the museum said in a statement released...