The Extinction Cause of the Tasmanian Tiger

Declared extinct Tasmanian tiger predates its cousin, the Tasmanian devil. Scientists refer to the extinction of native Australian and the island of Tasmania marsupial animals was not a result of human hunting activity.

"We found the Thylacine genetic diversity is much lower than the Tasmanian devil," said researcher Andrew Pask from the University of Connecticut, USA.

Tasmanian tiger was genetically doomed. (Picture from: http://www.mnn.com/)

Tasmanian tiger (Thylacynus cynocephalus), or thylacine, was hunted to near extinction in the early 1900s. Last individual died in Tasmania zoo in 1936. During hunting by humans is blamed as the main cause of extinction of the Tasmanian tiger.

Bodied lines such as tigers, these animals have a body like a medium size dog and hanging in mainland Australia and the small island to the south, Tasmania.

Recent studies record some Tasmanian tiger genetic fragments of 14 samples, including fur, bones, and specimens, preserved for over 100 years old. The scientists found those individuals Tasmanian tigers have very similar genetic material, which reached 99.5 percent. Whereas once the genetic material is very diverse.

"If we compare the same piece of DNA, the average Tasmanian tiger has only one DNA differ between individuals. As for dogs, for example, has a 5-6 inter-individual differences," Brandon said Menzies, a co-researcher Andrew Pask from the University of Connecticut.

Tasmanian tigers. (Picture from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/)

Menzies said that genetic variability is essentially the difference in gene order between two individuals within a species. Genomic analysis showed genetic variability of the Tasmanian tiger has too little to survive.

Growing number of small genetic diversity became a kind of spell extinction for a species. If you do not have a larger pool of genetic, species are threatened not able to adapt to the environment.

The low genetic diversity of a species can be caused by various factors. For example, the species consists of many small populations whose lives are mutually isolated. Impact, the number of members of the population has declined sharply due to much inbreeding occurs. **** [LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3857]

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