Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

Conservation of Small Populations

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...

The Fossil Record

The Fossil Record

The fossil record documents only a small fraction of all organisms that have ever inhabited Earth. Fossilization is a rare process, and most organisms never become fossils. Moreover, the fossil record only exhibits fossils that have been discovered. Nevertheless, sedimentary rock fossils of long-lived, abundant, hard-bodied organisms dominate the fossil record. These fossils offer valuable information, such as an organism's physical form, behavior, and age. Studying the fossil record helps...

What is Evolutionary History?

What is Evolutionary History?

Scientists record evolutionary history by analyzing fossil, morphological, and genetic data. The fossil record documents the history of life on Earth and provides evidence for evolution. However, both fossil and living organisms offer evidence that outlines Earth’s evolutionary history.

Threats to Biodiversity

Threats to Biodiversity

There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Daily nocturnal homing reveals goal-directed navigation in a wild teleost.

iScience·2026

Same author

AI and computer vision for wildlife identification in camera trap images: Fine-tuning SpeciesNet outperforms local models for species classification.

The Science of the total environment·2026

Same author

Harnessing social media data to track species range shifts.

Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·2026

Same author

Mental health culturomics.

PLOS mental health·2026

Same author

A Systems Perspective: How Social-Ecological Networks Can Improve Our Understanding and Management of Biological Invasions.

Bioscience·2026

Same author

Uncooling the planet: Rewilding for function in a post-Pleistocene climate.

Cambridge prisms. Extinction·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 6, 2025

Cortisol Measurement in Koala Phascolarctos cinereus Fur

Cortisol Measurement in Koala Phascolarctos cinereus Fur

Published on: August 23, 2019

Resolving when (and where) the Thylacine went extinct.

Barry W Brook¹, Stephen R Sleightholme², Cameron R Campbell³

¹School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), Australia.

The Science of the Total Environment

|March 19, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The Thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, likely went extinct between the 1940s and 1970s, though some data suggests a possibility of survival until the early 2000s in remote Tasmania.

Keywords:

Extinction inference Extirpation pattern Range dynamics Tasmanian Tiger Uncertainty modelling

More Related Videos

Image Rendering Techniques in Postmortem Computed Tomography: Evaluation of Biological Health and Profile in Stranded Cetaceans

Published on: September 27, 2020

Reduced Itraconazole Concentration and Durations Are Successful in Treating Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infection in Amphibians

Reduced Itraconazole Concentration and Durations Are Successful in Treating Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infection in Amphibians

Published on: March 14, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Aug 6, 2025

Cortisol Measurement in Koala Phascolarctos cinereus Fur

Cortisol Measurement in Koala Phascolarctos cinereus Fur

Published on: August 23, 2019

Image Rendering Techniques in Postmortem Computed Tomography: Evaluation of Biological Health and Profile in Stranded Cetaceans

Published on: September 27, 2020

Reduced Itraconazole Concentration and Durations Are Successful in Treating Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infection in Amphibians

Reduced Itraconazole Concentration and Durations Are Successful in Treating Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infection in Amphibians

Published on: March 14, 2014

Area of Science:

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Conservation Science
Paleontology

Background:

The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), or 'Tasmanian tiger', is an iconic symbol of human-caused extinction.
The species was extirpated from mainland Australia and persisted only in Tasmania until its demise.

Purpose of the Study:

To reconstruct the extinction timeline and spatio-temporal dynamics of the Thylacine.
To identify potential refugia and the most likely locations of the last surviving subpopulations.

Main Methods:

Compiled an exhaustive database of 1237 Thylacine observational records from Tasmania (1910 onwards).
Quantified record uncertainty and developed new methods for spatio-temporal analysis.
Applied uncertainty modeling and sensitivity analysis to the entire sighting record.

Main Results:

Direct interpretation of high-quality records suggests extinction between the 1940s and 1970s.
Uncertainty modeling indicates a possible extinction as recent as the late 1980s to early 2000s.
Analysis points to remote south-western Tasmania as a potential final refuge.

Conclusions:

The precise extinction date of the Thylacine remains uncertain, with a range from the mid-20th century to the early 21st century.
Spatio-temporal mapping of extirpation can aid conservation efforts for rare species.
Further research and targeted searches may be warranted in specific remote areas.