Scientists say they've made a breakthrough in efforts to bring back the extinct Tasmanian tiger
CBSN
It's been decades since Australia's thylacine, known as the Tasmanian tiger, was declared extinct and scientists say they've made a breakthrough as they research ways to bring back the carnivore.
Colossal Biosciences in a Thursday press release said its reconstructed thylacine genome is about 99.9% complete, with 45 gaps that they'll work to close through additional sequencing in the coming months. The company also isolated long RNA molecules from a 110-year-old preserved head, which was skinned and kept in ethanol.
"The thylacine samples used for our new reference genome are among the best preserved ancient specimens my team has worked with," said Beth Shapiro, Colossal's chief science officer and the director of the UCSC Paleogenomics Lab, where the samples were processed. "It's rare to have a sample that allows you to push the envelope in ancient DNA methods to such an extent."
More than a dozen Palestinians, including children, were killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, that was sheltering displaced people, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had struck "a compound that previously served as the 'Abu Hassan' School," where it said "dozens of terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations were present."
Photos show mess on Air Canada flight after turbulence sends passenger meals flying around the cabin
Passengers on an Air Canada flight experienced turbulence on Friday that was severe enough to send their meals flying off tray tables and into the air, leaving the cabin of the aircraft looking like the scene of mid-air food fight.