Scientists at Colossal Biosciences may be a few steps closer to resurrecting a long-extinct carnivorous marsupial known as the Tasmanian tiger.

It's been close to a century since the last Tasmanian tiger on the planet died in captivity, but a group of scientists believe they have what it takes to

A Dallas-based biotech company has nearly completed its reconstruction of the Tasmanian tiger just two years into its de-extinction project. The last known thylacine, commonly referred to as the

Colossal Biosciences, which intends to create proxy species of the woolly mammoth, dodo, and Tasmanian tiger, claims it has made genome editing breakthroughs that bring it closer to the lost marsupial wolf.

The tiger, also known as Thylacine, was a wolf-like carnivorous marsupial, about the size of a large dog, who once used to roam the forests of Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. However, the last known Tasmanian tiger died in Hobart zoo in 1936, with the rest of the species hunted to extinction.

Also known as the Tasmanian wolf or thylacine, the Tasmanian tiger lived in Australia and became extinct when the last known tiger died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo.