In a first, scientists recover RNA from an extinct species — the Tasmanian tiger

Scientists have for the first time recovered and sequenced RNA from an extinct species, the Tasmanian tiger, a Stockholm University researcher told CBS News. The breakthrough potentially raises hope for the resurrection of animals once thought lost forever. 

"People didn't think it could really be done," Marc Friedländer, an associate professor in molecular biology at Stockholm University, told CBS News.

Love Dalen, a Stockholm University professor of evolutionary genomics who co-led the project, told the AFP that "RNA has never been extracted and sequenced from an extinct species before."