A species of extinct deer is reborn without the help of science

A rare species of deer living in central Thailand could have come back from the dead without the help of genetic engineering.

The Schomburgk deer (Rucervus schomburgki) was added to the extinction list in 1938. But new evidence, obtained from woods obtained in the late 1990s or early 1991, shows that he has survived for at least another half-century and is still possible. Present today.

The research was published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Gary Galbreath, a professor of biological sciences at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, took part.

After the excessive hunting of the wild population in 1932, the last known Schomburgk deer died in captivity six years later. Or we think. A truck driver in Laos discovered a set of seemingly recent woods in the early 90's. He then delivered them to a shop in Phongsali province in northern Laos.

In February 1991, United Nations agronomist Laurent Chazée photographed woods. Galbreath and his collaborator G. B. Schroering recently badyzed the physical condition of the woods in these photos. Based on the extensive, basket-like and hyperbranched timber structure, the team determined that the wood belonged to a Schomburgk deer. (The other Asian deer antlers do not have the same signature basket shape).

Galbreath also confirmed that the woods were recent when they were photographed in 1991. The woods, stained with dried blood from dark red to reddish brown, had been removed from the deer's head. The color of the blood and the condition of the exposed bone marrow provided clues about the age of the woods.

"The relative age of wood specimens can be evaluated by materials, such as dried bone marrow, that still adhere to it," said Galbreath, an Asian wildlife expert. "Even the blood was always red, it would darken over the years, and in the tropics the woods would not look like that even in a few months."

Before being included as "extinct", deer were well documented in Thailand. Galbreath thinks that a small population was also likely living in a remote area of ​​downtown Laos, where she could still live today.