Michael Archer's TED talk: Resurrecting the gastric brooding frog and the Tasmanian Tiger

Wikipedia

Paleontologist and former Australian Museum Director Michael Archer is working to de-extinct the gastric brooding frog and the Thylacine (aka Tasmanian Tiger), as mentioned recently on this blog. Archer recently gave an interesting TED talk on his involvement with two projects working towards 'de-extinction' of several species.

De-extinction researchers hot on the Thylacine's trail

He may be a little greyer around the temples now at 68, but palaeontologist Professor Mike Archer is still hot on the trail of resurrecting the Thylacine.

He heads up the Lazarus Project, an Australian scientific team making some extraordinary progress in attempting to bring an extinct species back to life. 

At a gathering a recent gathering of 'de-extinction experts' (it's a bit of a mouthful but it's catching on, trust us!) Archer announced his team had created cloned embryos containing the DNA of an extinct creature, Australia's southern gastric-brooding frog. Producing the embryos, by implanting the extinct frog's DNA in donor frog eggs, brings Archer's team one step closer to undoing extinction, and one step ahead of teams around the world. 

Read Lisa Clausen's excellent feature on Mike Archer and his work in Launceston's Examiner newspaper here.