Thylacine Research Articles

Cranial morphology of the Miocene thylacinid Mutpuracinus archibaldi (Thylacinidae, Marsupialia) and relationships within the Dasyuromorphia

A plesiomorphic middle Miocene thylacinid, Mutpuracinus archibaldi, closely resembles the early to middle Miocene dasyurid, Barinya wangala, in its possession of purportedly exclusive dasyurid characters: a closed alisphenoid tympanic bulla that contacted a periotic tympanic sinus; a deeply invasive internal jugular canal with a distinct posteroventral lip of the petrosal; and a rudimentary tubal foramen. These shared character states and many other structural similarities in the cranial base between Mutpuracinus and Barinya indicate shared ancestry, with the dentally more conservative Dasyuridae representing the plesiomorphic sister group to the Thylacinidae. Other Oligocene-Miocene thylacinid species in which the bony ear region is preserved (Badjcinus turnbulli, Nimbacinus dicksoni) show intermediate states between Mutpuracinus archibaldi and Thylacinus cynocephalus. These indicate that the states of the ear region of Thylacinus cynocephalus (small, posteriorly open alisphenoid tympanic wing, absence of petrosal tympanic process, alisphenoid surrounding primary foramen ovale), which resemble some South American didelphoid marsupials, are not primitive. They are secondarily derived states in which the alisphenoid tympanic wing and contacting processes are reduced.

Tasmanian Tiger—The Tragic Tale of How The World Lost Its Most Mysterious Predator

D. Owen. 2003. Tasmanian Tiger—The Tragic Tale of How The World Lost Its Most Mysterious Predator. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 228 pp. ISBN 0-8018-7952-3, price (hardbound), $25.00. David Owen has written 9 novels and edits the Australian literary journal Island . His book, Tasmanian Tiger , is purely informative and presents summaries of different viewpoints rather than intensive arguments. His target audience is the general public rather than the scientific community. In Tasmanian Tiger , a map of Tasmania precedes the title page and table of contents. There is a brief preface and acknowledgements, followed by 15 chapters. Each chapter begins with a quotation, cited to a name and place, but unfortunately without date. The footnotes, many of which are simply citations, are gathered and organized by chapter at the end of the text, preceding the select bibliography. Some, but not …

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine

R. Paddle. 2002. The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 273 pp. ISBN 521-78219-8, ISBN 0-521-53154-3, price (paper), $21.00. In recent years, the extinction and hypothetical survival of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) has attracted considerable attention. If anything, interest will only increase with the progress of the Australian Museum's project to clone a thylacine. Surprisingly few books about thylacines are available. The 1st major effort was Eric Guiler (1985) Thylacine: The Tragedy of the Tasmanian Tiger . Another book, Colonel Bailey (2001) Tiger Tales: Stories of the Tasmanian Tiger was, in contrast, a collection of firsthand thylacine anecdotes. The Last Tasmanian Tiger is based on Robert Paddle's (1997) Ph.D. dissertation (University of Melbourne). His purpose is 2-fold: to inform, and to convince. Paddle presents a number of his own theories, arguments, and analyses of …

Is this picture worth a thousand words? An analysis of Harry Burrell's photograph of a thylacine with a chicken

In 1921 a photograph of a thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus carrying a chicken in its mouth appeared in The Australian Museum Magazine with the caption “copyright photo from life - H. Burrell”. In 1926, A.S. Le Souef and Harry Burrell used the same photograph to illustrate the entry for the thylacine in The Wild Animals of Australasia. Robert Paddle (2000) considers the picture to be one of the chief causes of a “blossoming of the construction that the thylacine was a significant poultry predator” and notes that the photograph has been used in many published works. However, a former associate of Burrell suggests that the figure in the photograph is not a live animal, but a mounted specimen placed against a “bush background”. With the assistance of digital imaging programs, a close analysis of the glass plate negative of this photograph is undertaken to determine the veracity of the claim. I conclude that the figure in the photograph is indeed a mounted specimen. Certain circumstantial evidence connected w...

Bite club: comparative bite force in big biting mammals and the prediction of predatory behaviour in fossil taxa

We provide the first predictions of bite force (BS) in a wide sample of living and fossil mammalian predators. To compare between taxa, we calculated an estimated bite force quotient (BFQ) as the residual of BS regressed on body mass. Estimated BS adjusted for body mass was higher for marsupials than placentals and the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) had the highest relative BS among extant taxa. The highest overall BS was in two extinct marsupial lions. BFQ in hyaenas were similar to those of related, non-osteophagous taxa challenging the common assumption that osteophagy necessitates extreme jaw muscle forces. High BFQ in living carnivores was associated with greater maximal prey size and hypercarnivory. For fossil taxa anatomically similar to living relatives, BFQ can be directly compared, and high values in the dire wolf (Canis dirus) and thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) suggest that they took relatively large prey. Direct inference may not be appropriate where morphologies depart widely from biomechanical models evident in living predators and must be considered together with evidence from other morphological indicators. Relatively low BFQ values in two extinct carnivores with morphologies not represented among extant species, the sabrecat, Smilodon fatalis, and marsupial sabretooth, Thylacosmilus atrox, support arguments that their killing techniques also differed from extant species and are consistent with 'canine-shear bite' and 'stabbing' models, respectively. Extremely high BFQ in the marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex, indicates that it filled a large-prey hunting niche.

Functional-adaptive analysis of the postcranial skeleton of a Laventan borhyaenoid, Lycopsis longirostris (Marsupialia, Mammalia)

ABSTRACT Lycopsis longirostris, a middle Miocene Colombian borhyaenoid, is compared functionally with early Miocene borhyaenoids from Patagonia and the Tasmanian thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus, the largest Recent marsupial carnivore. The postcranium of Lycopsis shows a mosaic of features. Although several features characterizing the long bones are consistent with a primarily terrestrial mode of life (e.g., a straight ulna and tibia, a semi-digitigrade forefoot), other features like the development of mm. spinati, pectoralis and biceps and the pseudo-opposable pollex indicate that the forelimb had manipulative and grasping abilities. On the hindlimb, the poorly stabilized lower ankle joint, the short metatarsals, and the well-developed hallux also preclude fast running. When compared to three early Miocene borhyaenoids, Prothylacinus patagonicus, Cladosictis patagonica, and Borhyaena tuberata, which form a morphological gradient from the most arboreally-adapted taxon to an incipient cursorial one, Lycopsis is placed between Cladosictis and Borhyaena. Lycopsis was more likely an ambush hunter than a pounce-pursuit predator, stalking small-to medium-sized prey.

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine, by Robert Paddle

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine, by Robert Paddle

Foraging behavior of three Tasmanian macropodid marsupials in response to present and historical predation threat

It is often essential to understand historical selection regimes to explain current traits. We studied antipredator behavior of three Tasmanian macropodid marsupials – Forester kangaroos Macropus giganteus, Bennett's wallabies M. rufogriseus, and Tasmanian pademelons Thylogale billardierii– to understand how antipredator behavior functions in a relatively intact predator community. We also compared behavior of the kangaroos and wallabies on a predator‐free island where they were translocated from mainland Tasmania 30 yr ago. Both species allowed humans to get closer to them on the predator‐free island; a finding consistent with a reduced risk of predation on the island. Neither kangaroos, nor wallabies, exhibited group size effects – they did not modify time allocated to foraging or antipredator vigilance as a function of group size at either site. Nor did overall time allocation vary in any consistent way. In contrast, mainland Australian sibling‐species of Forester kangaroos and Bennett's wallabies have both been reported to have group size effects. It is possible either that the extinction of the thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus in the last century has led to an evolutionary loss of group size effects and other antipredator behavior, or that thylacines were never that important a predator on Tasmanian subspecies. In contrast, Tasmanian pademelons studied on the Tasmanian mainland modified time allocation as a function of group size suggesting that they perceived safety in numbers. Pademelons, because of their body size, are relatively more vulnerable than larger‐bodied macropodids to the rich community of marsupial carnivores in Tasmania, and used a mix of social and individual strategies to manage predation risk.

Is the Tasmanian tiger extinct? A biological–economic re-evaluation

In the 1890s, a bounty scheme was implemented to rid Tasmania of the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial predator believed to wreak havoc on imported sheep flocks. The thylacine is now officially ‘possibly extinct’ and although, repeatedly, there have been alleged sightings in the wild, most people now believe the species is extinct as there has been no confirmed evidence of its survival over the last 70 years. We develop a bioeconomic model to re-evaluate the likelihood that thylacines are alive today, or whether the turn of the last century demand for dead tigers drove the species to extinction. Our results suggest the bounty did not drive thylacines to extinction.

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Reviving the Tasmanian Tiger

Reviving the Tasmanian Tiger

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine

1. Introduction: science and the species from a European perspective 2. Constructing objectivity: changing scientific perceptions of the thylacine 3. Of signal importance: select social and predatory behaviours 4. A predatory entertainment: stimuli of consuming interest 5. Ovisceral exploitation: extracts of sheepish behaviour 6. Mythology becomes misology: the dogmatism of unenlightenment 7. Faunal fun and games: the politics of protection 8. The last Tasmanian tiger: indifference and the demise of the species 9. Post-extinction blues: contingency and responsibility in extinction 10. Conclusion: the lessons to be learnt.

Opportunities lost: Zoos and the marsupial that tried to be a wolf

In the archives of the National Zoo there is a story of an opportunity lost. Aszoo stories go, it is not unique. There are many others like it. Such stories sometimestell us about ourselves.It started sometime in early 1902. Zoo director William Hornaday wanted toexhibit a thylacine: Thylacinus cynocephalus—the pouched beast with a dog’s head.Depicted by Patterson as “a species perfectly distinct from any of the animal cre-ation hitherto known…” [Quammen, 1997:281], the thylacine had been describedalmost 100 years earlier. Though sometimes called the Tasmanian tiger because ofits striped coat, this strange marsupial was actually a “wannabe” wolf. The long-muzzled head with its short ears, the deep chest, and the feet and legs were distinc-tively dog-like, but the rear end and long tail hinted of marsupial ancestry. True dogscan wag their tails. This one could not. All the same, the thylacine remains a remark-able example of convergent evolution, and the largest carnivorous marsupial to sur-vive into the 20th century.Hornaday made his wishes known to a Washington diplomat and zoo buff, Dr.F.W. Goding, who was U.S. Consul of New South Wales. Although thylacines haddisappeared from mainland Australia before Europeans arrived on the scene, theystill survived in Tasmania where they preyed on sheep and consequently were con-sidered a nuisance. Goding used his influence. In due course, a Tasmanian trappercaught a female, which was shipped to the states. The creature endured the confinesof a crate for over 3 weeks as the steamer carried it across the Pacific and a trainconveyed it to the nation’s capital.Upon arrival in September 1902, the animal’s shabby condition showed thatthe journey had taken its toll. Until then, the strange-looking animal also had kept asecret. She was a mother. Three pouch young, no bigger than rats, had miraculously

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine (review)

The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine (review)

The last Tasmanian tiger: the history and extinction of the thylacine

The last Tasmanian tiger: the history and extinction of the thylacine

The skull of Nimbacinus dicksoni (Thylacinidae : Marsupialia)

The exceptionally well preserved skull and mandible of the Miocene thylacinid Nimbacinus dicksoni is described. Phylogenetic analysis supports the contention that, within the family, the dentition of N. dicksoni is unspecialised, less derived than the recent Thylacinus cynocephalus for at least 12 features. However, relatively few cranial specialisations evident in T. cynocephalus clearly distinguish it from N. dicksoni. These two taxa share at least three derived cranial features not present in the most generalised thylacinid known from significant cranial material, the late Oligocene Badjcinus turnbulli. On the other hand, where comparison is possible, even the most specialised thylacinid, T. cynocephalus, is plesiomorphic for at least 10 cranial features common to modern dasyurids and five present in the Miocene dasyurid, Barinya wangala. Two character states found in thylacinids are more derived than in B. wangala. Relative to the remaining dasyuromorphian family, Myrmecobiidae, represented by the monotypic Myrmecobius fasciatus, thylacinids are derived for five cranial features and plesiomorphic for five. It appears that despite considerable anatomical diversity among the dentitia of thylacinids and the presence of many highly specialised dental features in some species, the crania of thylacinids have remained remarkably conservative. Even with respect to dentitia, in terms of overall similarity, the Miocene Thylacinus macknessiand late Oligocene material referred to Thylacinus does not differ greatly from the recently extinct T. cynocephalus. It now also seems probable that T. macknessi was also very similar to T. cynocephalus with respect to cranial anatomy. Numerical parsimony analysis incorporating this new material produced moderate bootstrap and Bremer support for a monophyletic Thylacinidae. In this same treatment strict consensus placed Myrmecobius fasciatus as the sister taxon to Thylacinidae–Dasyuridae, but bootstrap and Bremer support was lacking. Both of these results are contra those of the most recent attempt to resolve dasyuromorphian relationships using numerical parsimony and anatomical data. In the present analysis, the early Eocene Australian taxon, Djarthia murgonensis, fell outside a clade inclusive of all other Australian taxa and was monophyletic with the borhyaeniod, Mayulestes ferox. This latter relationship is based on limited material, poorly supported and considered highly unlikely, but it does strengthen the argument that formal placement of D. murgonensis beyond the level of Marsupialia incertae sedisis unwarranted at present.

Two New Genera and Three New Species of Thylacinidae (Marsupialia) from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia

Three new species and two new genera of Thylacinidae from the Northern Territory of Australia bring the total number of known mid and late Tertiary species to 11 in eight genera. Tyanpecinus rothi gen. et sp. nov. from the Alcoota Local Fauna (Waite Formation), and Nimbacinus riclli sp. nov. and Mutpuracinus archibaldi gen. et sp. nov. from the Bullock Creek Local Fauna (Camfield Beds), are relatively small and amongst the more plesiomorphic members of the family. Phylogeny reconstruction using cladistic methods and biochronological data indicate that a major radiation occurred within the family in pre-Miocene times. Specialisation in the form of dental carnassialisation appears to have evolved in parallel in at least two crown groups, one of which includes the recently extinct 'Tasmanian wolf', Thylacinus cynocephalus. The other, together with all the lineages represented by unspecialised species, apparently did not survive into the late Miocene. However, insufficient data are available to show what the regional, let alone continental, pattern of succession was during the Miocene.

The Last Tasmanian Tiger, the history and extinction of the thylacine

The Last Tasmanian Tiger, the history and extinction of the thylacine

Insular tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) respond to visual but not acoustic cues from predators

We studied the way in which a population of tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii), which have been isolated from mammalian predators since the last ice age, responded to the sight and sound of historical and ontogenetically and evolutionarily novel predators. Tammars were shown a range of visual stimuli, including taxidermic mounts of two evolutionarily novel predators, a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and a cat (Felis catus), and a model of an extinct predator, the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). Controls were a conspecific, the cart on which all mounts were presented, and blank trials in which spontaneous change in behavior was measured. We played back recorded sounds to characterize responses to acoustic cues from predators and to a putative conspecific antipredator signal. Treatments included the howls of dingoes (Canis lupus dingo), an evolutionarily novel predator; calls of a wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), a historical and current predator; and wallaby foot thumps. Controls were the song of an Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) and a blank trial. After seeing a fox, wallabies thumped their hind feet in alarm, suppressed foraging, and increased looking. The sight of a cat similarly suppressed foraging and increased looking. The sounds of predators did not influence responsiveness, but wallabies foraged less and looked more after thump playbacks. Our results suggest that tammars respond to the sight, but not the sounds, of predators. In contrast, the response to foot thumps demonstrates that this particular sound functions as an antipredator signal. We suggest that responsiveness to visual cues has been preserved under relaxed selection because predator morphology is convergent, but vocalizations are not.