News Animals

For the first time, researchers decoded the RNA of an extinct animal

RNA recovered from a preserved Tasmania tiger reveals details about how its cells functioned

A photo from 1930 of a Tasmanian tiger.

The Tasmanian tiger (one shown in captivity in 1930) went extinct after the last one died in a zoo in 1936. Researchers have now extracted RNA from one museum specimen.

Topical Press Agency/Stringer/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

By Katherine Kornei

- More than 2 years ago

For the first time, researchers have successfully extracted and decoded RNA from an extinct animal.