Tasmanian Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus )
Lived: 4 million years ago (early Pliocene) to 1936
Size: Length (head to body): 1m
Description: The Tasmanian Thylacine is often called the Tasmanian Tiger because of its striped coat, and because in historical times it lived only in Tasmania. But up until 2000 years ago, the Tasmanian Thylacine could be found in open forests and woodlands right across mainland Australia and even in New Guinea.
The Tasmanian Thylacine was a meat-eater that hunted wallabies and other mammals, including sheep. Its closest living relatives are numbats and other carnivorous dasyurid marsupials such as quolls and the Tasmanian Devil.
Fossils: Fossils of the Tasmanian Thylacine have been found in many places in Australia as well as in New Guinea. They include complete carcasses and a mummified Thylacine from a cave on the Nullarbor Plain.
Did you know?: The Tasmanian Thylacine became extinct in 1936, the same year it was declared a protected species. It may have died out on mainland Australia because of competition with the Dingo. The Dingo does not live in Tasmania, which was the 'last stronghold' of the Thylacine until Europeans arrived and hunted it to extinction.
