Gerry,

Tissues can come from live or dead specimens. For dead specimens, certain types of preservation can damage the DNA, so a researcher has to be aware of how a particular specimen was preserved. As to why an entire specimen isn't sent to the researcher, it's generally because the speciment belongs to a different institution than the interested researcher. For example, a specimen might belong to the University of Texas - Arlington, while the interested researcher is working at the University of Las Vegas. Additionally, only a small tissue sample is needed for DNA analysis.

Now, your question regarding who might have live specimens of the "Jim Kane" animals... I honestly don't know. Joe would probably have better knowledge of that. Joe????
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-Cole

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