Tasmanian devil
dr. dolittle | August 31, 2016Tasmanian devils are rather large carnivorous marsupials. By large, I mean the world's largest.
In only 2 decades, the population of Tasmanian devils have declined by about 85%, landing these animals on the endangered species list. The cause: an infectious cancer called devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). As the name implies, this cancer causes facial tumors that grow so large, the victims starve to death in as little as 6 months from an inability to eat. What makes this cancer particularly devastating to a population is how it spreads between animals through bites and the one thing Tasmanian…
sa smith | May 7, 2013I cannot deal with the fact Tasmanian Devils are being driven to extinction by a contagious, untreatable cancer. I cannot deal with it. Click on the first link to see the science behind the tragedy:
Numbers arent enough
Click on the second link to see why I cannot deal with this, psychologically:
Oh no… Cedric died.
I am crying remembering Cedric... I saw him as Arnies brother-from-down-under... crap...
Anne-Marie Hodge from Endless Forms just wrote about new findings about Tasmanian Devils and their cancer:
Devil Dispatch: MHC the Key to Contagious Cancer Vaccine?
I took away another idea:…
sa smith | September 1, 2010Oh no...
Im genuinely crying over this.
Cedric the Tasmanian Devil died.
Here is the obvious reason for why I loved Cedric:
But I loved Cedric for scientific reasons too. I thought he was going to help us save Tasmanian Devils from extinction.
Dr. Alex Kreiss is the cute boy in that pic.Dr Kreiss says it was a difficult day.
"We would see and do something with Cedric every week so it was a very sad day and not just for me but for the keepers that looked after him since he was born, for the other vets that worked with him and that did health checks with him. So it was very sad."
University of…
razib | December 31, 2009Carl Zimmer has a nice write up of the a new paper in Science which characterizes the nature of the cells which are manifest during devil facial tumor disease. The Tasmanian Devil Transcriptome Reveals Schwann Cell Origins of a Clonally Transmissible Cancer:
The Tasmanian devil, a marsupial carnivore, is endangered because of the emergence of a transmissible cancer known as devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). This fatal cancer is clonally derived and is an allograft transmitted between devils by biting. We performed a large-scale genetic analysis of DFTD with microsatellite genotyping, a…
bleimanb | May 1, 2008I met Chris Green on a boat in Lake Titicaca in September, 2007. Immediately we realized that we had something in common...Weird animals, well kinda. For starters, I just write about weird animals, and Chris actually works with them. Also because he lives on Tasmania, he doesn't really consider the animals he works with weird; they are pretty much the most normal animals he can think of...Whoa, that's deep.
Normal day at the office...
If Andrew and I were trying to make a joke about a typical Tasmanian person, we'd probably use Chris' resume as material. He has spent the last few years at a…
mikethemadbiologist | November 20, 2007Help me, or I will slay you with cuteness
The Tasmanian Devil, already teetering on extinction, is being hit hard by a transmissible cancer. I had heard about this in dogs, but not Tasmanian Devils. You can donate here to help protect this unique species.
zooillogix | May 21, 2007The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial and lived in Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. Known as both the Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Wolf, it is believed that thylacines were hunted to extinction in the 20th century. Although sightings are still reported, scientists are skeptical because, for the most part, people are idiots. Sharing a startling degree of physiological adaptations with canines and markings similar to tigers, the thylacine is an often-cited example of convergent evolution. It's closest living relative is the Tasmanian Devil, which, sadly, has also seen…
zooillogix | May 4, 2007One day at a time...Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisii
Tasmanian devils are suddenly on the verge of total extinction, due to a mysterious facial cancer that is spreading rapidly through their population. Since the first sick animal's discovery, eleven years ago, the cancer has swept through Tasmania like a plague, sometimes killing every single Tasmanian devil in an area within 18 months of its arrival. "Once they've got a lump, it's a one way trip," says Menna Jones, an expert on Tasmanian Devils at the University of Tasmania.
Not only does the cancer cause the host to die, but it also…