![]() ![]() Harris originally placed the thylacine in the genus Didelphis, which had been created by Linnaeus for the American opossums, describing it as Didelphis cynocephala, the "dog-headed opossum". The first detailed scientific description was made by Tasmania's Deputy Surveyor-General, George Harris, in 1808, five years after first European settlement of the island. He also sent a description of the thylacine in a letter to Joseph Banks, dated 30 March 1805. In 1805, William Paterson, the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, sent a detailed description for publication in the Sydney Gazette. The first definitive encounter was by French explorers on, as noted by the naturalist Jacques Labillardière, in his journal from the expedition led by d'Entrecasteaux. Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, arriving with the Mascarin in 1772, reported seeing a "tiger cat". His shore party reported seeing the footprints of "wild beasts having claws like a Tyger". Europeans may have encountered it in Tasmania as far back as 1642, when Abel Tasman first arrived in Tasmania. īy the time the first European explorers arrived, the animal was already extinct in mainland Australia and New Guinea, and rare in Tasmania. Petroglyph images of the thylacine can be found at the Dampier Rock Art Precinct, on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia. Numerous examples of thylacine engravings and rock art have been found, dating back to at least 1000 BC. Taxonomic and evolutionary history This is the earliest known non-indigenous illustration of a thylacine from Harris' 1808 description. Its whole genome sequence has been mapped and there are efforts to clone and bring them back to life. Universities, museums and other institutions across the world research the animal. On 7 September, the date in 1936 on which the last known thylacine died, National Threatened Species Day is commemorated in Australia. The animal is featured on the official coat of arms of Tasmania. The thylacine has been used extensively as a symbol of Tasmania. Since extinction there have been numerous searches and reported sightings of live animals, none of which have been confirmed. The remains of the last known thylacine were discovered at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2022. Intensive hunting on Tasmania is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributing factors were disease, the introduction of and competition with dingoes, human encroachment into its habitat and climate change. Its closest living relatives are the other members of Dasyuromorphia including the Tasmanian devil. The thylacine was an apex predator, though exactly how large its prey had been is disputed. It also had a stiff tail and could open its jaws to an unusual extent. The females used theirs for rearing young and the males used theirs as a protective sheath, covering the external reproductive organs. The name thylacine is derived from thýlakos meaning "pouch" and ine meaning "pertaining to", and refers to the marsupial pouch. ![]() The thylacine was known as the Tasmanian tiger because it displayed dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, and it was known as the Tasmanian wolf because it had the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size canid. The thylacine is widespread in popular culture and is a cultural icon in Australia. The last known of its species died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. Beginning in the nineteenth century they were perceived as a threat to the livestock of farmers and bounty hunting was introduced. Prior to European settlement around 5,000 remained in the wild on Tasmania. The thylacine had died out on New Guinea and mainland Australia around 3,500 years ago, prior to the arrival of Europeans, possibly because of the introduction of the dingo, whose earliest record dates to around the same time, but which never reached Tasmania. The thylacine ( / ˈ θ aɪ l ə s iː n/ binomial name Thylacinus cynocephalus), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea.
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