With winter bringing in new volunteers for Project Cenozoic and already plenty of volunteers for Project Mesozoic, Project Thylacine was not going to be left behind either. Though it took a bit of time for museums to find enough DNA samples to sent to Horizon Labs. While these animals had not been dead long enough to require as many samples as the ice age megafauna or the dinosaurs, enough DNA had to be gathered to make sure that the extinct species in question would actually be recreated. Also finding volunteers for becoming these creatures was a challenge as well. But there were a few surprising volunteers, such as two aristocrats from Europe.
Irena de Vasconcellos was a countess from a very old family in Murcia. In fact, she could proudly state that some of her ancestors were members of the Knights Templar. However, the family had suffered much during the Spanish Inquisition when Pope Clement V abolished the Templar order, which led to the persecution of hundreds. While the de Vasconcellos family was not destroyed, they suffered much grief. The Spanish Civil War was even worse for them as several members of the family were killed. The family had dwindled since then until Irena remained the last of the de Vasconcellos. Unfortunately, she was far too old to have any more children and so she had resigned herself to knowing her family line dies with her.
That was until Animalia promised renewed youth and health. But the Countess could not accept a change for her own needs. While certainly not poor, her health was not bad enough to warrant the services of Project Phoenix. And if she was to sacrifice her humanity, it should be for a more charitable reason than simply wanting to continue her family line. The introduction of the de-extinction projects were the answer she was looking for. As long as she was trying to restart her family line, she may as well help bring another creature from nonexistence. The animal she chose was one that was once native to her country of Spain and had briefly been brought back: the Pyrenean Ibex.
The other aristocrat was very different. Lord Dorian Cholmondeley came from old money, but a lot of it had been spent by his time. Most of what he had remaining was his family's estate in Yorkshire and a large amount of the surrounding countryside. Still, he was a very amiable fellow, if rather eccentric. He was also the last heir of his family's estate, (the last legitimate heir anyways). Despite being nobility, Dorian couldn't find any women who'd want to be his wife, namely because of his relatively small estate and fortune, his eccentricity, and for being unfortunately homely.
However, Dorian was able to provide for Project Thylacine something they though no one would volunteer to be: a dodo Animalian. While samples of dodo DNA were not hard to find, it was even harder to find anyone who would want to be converted into a flightless, ridiculous-looking bird that was synonymous with stupidity. However, Dorian was well-known to be rather obsessive with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He even had part of his estate made into a small park modeled after Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land. It was obviously rather popular with the children in that area. And while Dorian could want to become a hare, a dormouse, a walrus, or several other creatures from Lewis Carroll's stories, he chose the dodo bird to both show support for Project Thylacine and help bring back a rather neglected species.
These two volunteers would also be Animalia's first footholds in Europe as both of them were planning on returning to their estates. While it was unlikely said estates will become new colonies, it would be the start of new diplomatic relationships with European countries.