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+--- Thread: How Scientists Reconstructed the Brain of a Long-Extinct Beast (/thread-3276.html)
How Scientists Reconstructed the Brain of a Long-Extinct Beast - C C - Jan 20, 2017
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-scientists-reconstruct-brain-long-extinct-beast-180961878/
EXCERPT: [...] As thylacine sightings grew rarer, authorities began to consider protecting the species. In July 1936, the Tasmanian government declared the thylacine a protected species, but it was too late: Two months later, the species went extinct.
Like many others, Berns was drawn to the thylacine and its strangely dog-like features. To get a peek into its mind, he first tracked down a thylacine brain preserved in formaldehyde at the Smithsonian Institution. [...] Berns used MRI scans and a relatively new technique called diffusion tensor imaging, which maps the brain's areas of "white matter"—the tissue that carries nerve signals to and from neurons in different parts of the brain. For comparison, he did the same scans on two preserved brains of Tasmanian devils, the closest living relative of the thylacine.
Compared to its devil cousins, Berns says, the thylacine had a larger and more complex-looking frontal lobe. This would allow the animals a grasp of complex planning, which would be necessary for an apex predator that must constantly hunt for its food. [...] "When the thylacines were alive they were dismissed as stupid animals," Berns says. "[These results] would suggest otherwise...."
RE: How Scientists Reconstructed the Brain of a Long-Extinct Beast - Zinjanthropos - Jan 21, 2017
http://thylacineawarenessgroup.com/
This group is so new that their website has no sightings to report nor do they have a picture gallery. Actually the website looks like it either is or was under construction.
You can find supposed videos of more recent Tasmanian Tiger sightings but of course they are blurry, grainy and generally unfocused from a distance. Personally I hope like hell there are some still in the wild but I'm not banking on it.
I've always wondered if there is a special place in the world where the DNA from every animal is kept frozen for posterity?