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Dinosgacha

Mammal

Thylacine

The thylacine was a marsupial.

The thylacine was a marsupial. Its striped back and dog-like outline do not make it a wolf, a tiger or a hybrid of the two. Preserved specimens and historical images document a distinctive animal.

Thylacine at a glance

Diet
Carnivorous marsupial
A carnivorous marsupial whose feeding is documented in historical records.
When it lived
Holocene · historic extinction
Group
Marsupialia
Marsupials
Fossil locations
Tasmania, Australia
Places where fossils have been found

Beyond the game

The real Thylacine

The thylacine was a marsupial. Its striped back and dog-like outline do not make it a wolf, a tiger or a hybrid of the two. Preserved specimens and historical images document a distinctive animal.

The last known captive thylacine died in 1936. Museum specimens and genomic studies continue to provide information about its distinctive marsupial anatomy.

Fossil discoveries

Victoria, Australia · approximate locationNew South Wales, Australia · approximate locationSouth Australia, Australia · approximate locationWestern Australia, Australia · approximate locationQueensland, Australia · approximate locationPapua New Guinea · approximate location
Victoria, AustraliaNew South Wales, AustraliaSouth Australia, AustraliaWestern Australia, AustraliaQueensland, AustraliaPapua New Guinea

Selected fossil records · present-day map

Map references

Paleobiology Database · R. Gillespie, D. R. Horton, and P. Ladd, P. G. Macumber, T. H. Rich, R. Thorne, R. V. S. Wright. 1978. Lancefield swamp and the extinction of the Australian megafauna. Science 200:1044-1048 ↗

Paleobiology Database · L. Dawson. 1985. Marsupial fossils from Wellington Caves, New South Wales; the historic and scientific significance of the collections in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Records of the Australian Museum 37(2):55-69 ↗

Paleobiology Database · N. Pledge. 1990. The upper fossil fauna of the Henschke fossil cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 28(1):247-262 ↗

Paleobiology Database · J. Partridge. 1967. A 3,300 year old Thylacine (Marsupialia; Thylacinidae) from the Nullarbor Plain, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 50(2):57-59 ↗

Paleobiology Database · M. Archer. 1978. Quaternary vertebrate faunas from the Texas Caves of southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 19 1:61-109 ↗

Paleobiology Database · H. M. van Deusen. 1963. First New Guinea record of Thylacinus. Journal of Mammalogy 44(2):279-280 ↗

Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: Paleobiology Database and linked collections and publications.

Sources & text credits

Explore the references behind this profile.

  1. Feigin et al. 2018 — Genome of the Tasmanian tiger provides insights into the evolution and demography of an extinct marsupial carnivore
  2. Museums Victoria — Thylacine skeleton and genetic research

Original English Dinosgacha educational summaries informed by the linked scientific and museum references; source publications retain their own rights.

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