Academic literature on the topic 'Thylacinus cynocephalus'

Thylacinus macknessi is described from Miocene sediments of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland. Comparisons with other thylacinids and dasyurids reveal it to be a new species of Thylacinus. In most features it is as specialised as T. cynocephalus and it is not considered to be ancestral to any other taxon. The presence of such a specialised thylacine in the Riversleigh deposits argues for a pre-Late Oligocene divergence of this group from the Dasyuridae.

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.

The extinct thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) and the extant grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) are textbook examples of convergence between marsupials and placentals. Craniodental studies confirm the thylacine's carnivorous diet, but little attention has been paid to its postcranial skeleton, which would confirm or refute rare eyewitness reports of a more ambushing predatory mode than the pack-hunting pursuit mode of wolves and other large canids. Here we show that thylacines had the elbow morphology typical of an ambush predator, and propose that the ‘Tasmanian tiger’ vernacular name might be more apt than the ‘marsupial wolf’. The ‘ niche overlap hypothesis ’ with dingoes ( Canis lupus dingo ) as a main cause of thylacine extinction in mainland Australia is discussed in the light of this new information.

ABSTRACT With the passage of time, first-hand accounts of the Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) are now rare, and those that challenge the established historical narrative, rarer still. Recent recollections by one of the last living witnesses to a Thylacine capture have enabled us to piece together the life history of one of the last captive specimens. This account raises important questions over the accepted sequencing of the final two Thylacines on display at the Hobart Zoo.

ABSTRACT A rare photograph by the Reverend George H. Judd of two Thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus) within their enclosure at the old Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart is published for the first time, and the probable date the photograph was taken and the identity of the Thylacines portrayed is discussed.

As with human fingerprints, the stripe pattern of the Thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) is unique to each individual, with a marked degree of variation and asymmetry. This paper examines the stripe pattern variation in 141 of the 180 known Thylacine skin and taxidermy specimens listed in the sixth revision of the International Thylacine Specimen Database (2017).

The last large marsupial carnivores—the Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilis harrisii ) and thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus )—went extinct on mainland Australia during the mid-Holocene. Based on the youngest fossil dates (approx. 3500 years before present, BP), these extinctions are often considered synchronous and driven by a common cause. However, many published devil dates have recently been rejected as unreliable, shifting the youngest mainland fossil age to 25 500 years BP and challenging the synchronous-extinction hypothesis. Here we provide 24 and 20 new ages for devils and thylacines, respectively, and collate existing, reliable radiocarbon dates by quality-filtering available records. We use this new dataset to estimate an extinction time for both species by applying the Gaussian-resampled, inverse-weighted McInerney (GRIWM) method. Our new data and analysis definitively support the synchronous-extinction hypothesis, estimating that the mainland devil and thylacine extinctions occurred between 3179 and 3227 years BP.

A case for the partitioning of prey items based upon both the body size of the predator and the prey can be made. Thylacoleo carnifex appears to have been selecting animals of large body size (though probably not Diprotodon) all of which were elements of the Australian Pleistocene megafauna. Thylacinus cynocephalus, on the other hand, seems to have been selecting animals of medium to small body size. This would suggest that the two Pleistocene marsupial carnivores, Thylacoleo carnifex and Thylacinus cynocephalus, could have coexisted within a single community because their dietary niches did not overlap.

Nombe rockshelter was excavated by M-J. Mountain between 1971 and 1980. Human activity is first documented at the site at about 25,000 bp and continues through to the present. Four extinct Pleistocene herbivores, Protemnodon nombe,Protemnodon tumbuna,Dendrolagus noibano and a diprotodontid,occur in late Pleistocene strata together with human artefacts. Large quantities of animal bone were recovered and the analysis of these supplies the major data for the research. Three main issues are addressed: 1. The nature of the relationship between the early humans and their environment through the period that covers the late glacial maximum at about 18,000 bp. 2. The relationship between humans and the extinct species, including the thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus, which was a major predator at the site, contributing bone to the deposits during the Pleistocene. 3.The use of faunal evidence as an indicator of economic and subsistence activities as well as local environmental changes. The data show that the human activity during the late Pleistocene at Nombe was sporadic over the period from about 25,000 bp to about 15,000 bp. Hunters were probably targeting the large herbivores living in high altitude forest and other species adapted to high altitude cold environments. Humans and large herbivores coexisted for about 10,000 years before the animals disappeared from the record. This coexistence does not suggest a rapid demise through human overkill. Palynological evidence suggests that people were deliberately firing small patches of highland forest as early as 30,000 bp. Such clearing could have been used to promote forest-edge plants especially Pandanus, which has rich oily nuts. These small clearings could also have been used as an aid to hunting. By the end of the Pleistocene, human hunting had switched to emphasise medium and smaller forest animals, especially fruitbats, macropodids, phalangers and possums. Bat hunting was especially important at Nombe, which is in a limestone area with many caves. In the early Holocene the temperatures rose and sub-alpine grasslands were greatly reduced as forest spread to higher altitudes. The archaeological evidence shows that more sites were occupied by 10,000 bp than before and the faunal data at Nombe indicate a steep rise in the grassland wallaby, Thylogale brunii. This species adapts easily to forest disturbance and may indicate that forest clearance was increasing in the locality. The early Holocene was the period of intense human settlement of the site. The faunal analysis employed in this study is designed to test the broad questions about human:...environment relationships rather than to supply detailed information about the size and sex representation in the species present. Species are often dealt with as a group and no individual bone measurements have been taken. The computer database has been designed to produce a flexible data set that can easily be adapted to taxonomic change. The success of the approach suggests that faunal evidence can be a sensitive indicator of environmental change and can be used to examine human predation strategies and changes in economic subsistence.