Tasmania

Scientists have successfully extracted RNA from an extinct species for the first time. This was achieved in the thylacine, a species of carnivorous marsupial that roamed Australia until a century ago – and may again one day, if current plans bear fruit.

Famous video of a thylacine in captivity may not depict the last member of the species after all, according to new research. Australian scientists have rediscovered the preserved remains of a later thylacine in the collection of a museum in Tasmania.

Our mental images of the extinct thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, are tinged in greyscale, since that’s the main way we’re used to seeing them. But now, one of the most famous videos of the animal, shot in 1933, has been professionally colorized in 4K.

The Tasmanian tiger may be gone, but it’s not forgotten. New footage of the extinct marsupial has emerged from the vault of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), showing the last known member of the species in a dingy cage.

Australian researchers have discovered a fungus in Tasmania that produces novel molecules with similar activity to opioids. These never-before-seen molecules may have similar analgesic properties to morphine but without its dangerous side effects.

After five years and 8,700 mi (14,000 km), a lost oceanographic instrument package has turned up on a beach in Tasmania. The deep-ocean monitoring equipment was lost on Christmas Day 2013 in the Drake Passage, but was found by a Tasmanian resident after an epic drift clear across the South Pacific.

Tasmania's Freycinet Peninsula is home to some spectacular scenery, and those looking to take in the sights of this coastal pocket of southern Australia can now do so from a luxurious set of pavilions built to blend in with the landscape.