{"id":17077,"date":"2022-09-05T16:47:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=127501"},"modified":"2022-09-05T17:05:12","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T15:05:12","slug":"the-tasmanian-tiger-the-misunderstood-marsupial-that-scientists-want-to-bring-back-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/the-tasmanian-tiger-the-misunderstood-marsupial-that-scientists-want-to-bring-back-from-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tasmanian tiger: the misunderstood marsupial that scientists want to bring back from the dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Alice Lipscombe-Southwell\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 05 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Head Down Under, and you\u2019ll find quite different wildlife to what we have here in Europe.<\/p>\n

While European mammals belong to the \u2018placental\u2019 group \u2013 meaning that the offspring is carried in the mother\u2019s uterus, being nourished by the placenta, until a fairly late stage of development \u2013 Australasian mammals are mostly marsupials.<\/p>\n

Marsupials opt for a completely different reproductive strategy, where a jellybean-like foetus is born at a relatively early stage, then makes its way from the mother\u2019s birth canal to a pouch situated on her abdomen. Here, it will attach to a nipple in the pouch, and feed on milk as it continues to develop.<\/p>\n

There are 335 marsupial species currently in existence today, with some 70 per cent of those species native to Australasia. As they have inhabited the region for a long time, they have evolved many different body types to occupy various niches. There are the familiar kangaroos, koalas and Tasmanian devils, but also less well-known bandicoots, quolls and numbats (look them up, they\u2019re SUPER cute).<\/p>\n

When humans first arrived in Australasia some 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, there would have been even more intriguing fauna, including giant, carnivorous kangaroos (we wouldn\u2019t fancy meeting one of those) and hippo-sized wombats. These became extinct over the course of a few thousand years, either due to climate change<\/a>, human impact, or a combination of the two.<\/p>\n

But one marsupial species was only wiped out within the last century, and it\u2019s currently capturing the attention of scientists who want to de-extinct it<\/a>. It is, of course, the thylacine.<\/p>\n

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Thylacine in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania \u00a9 Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

What is a thylacine?<\/h2>\n

The thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, is not a tiger. Nor is it a dog, a fox, or a wolf. It is\u00a0 an extinct carnivorous marsupial. They first made an appearance in the fossil record some four million years ago.<\/p>\n

The adults had a body length of 100 to 130cm, with a long, stiff tail measuring 50 to 65cm. While earlier studies suggested thylacines weighed up to 30kg, newer research says that they weighed around 16.7kg on average<\/a>. They had a short, brownish-yellow coat with a distinctive pattern of stripes along the rump.<\/p>\n

Their mouths were able to open unusually wide, to an angle of more than 80\u00b0. While they were often blamed for killing farmers\u2019 sheep, research suggests their weak jaws couldn\u2019t manage anything larger than a possum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The shy animals were nocturnal and crepuscular, spending daylight hours hidden away.<\/p>\n

Uniquely among Australian marsupials, both male and female thylacines had a pouch. Females could hold a litter of up to four babies in her rear-facing pouch. In the males, the pouch was used to keep the genitalia protected.<\/p>\n

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Not a thylacine: dingoes have some basic similarities to thylacines, but they are not related \u00a9 Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

With their dog-like appearance, carnivorous diet, and sandy-coloured fur, thylacines may resemble dingoes, but the two species are not related. Thylacines and dingoes are an example of \u2018convergent evolution<\/a>\u2019, whereby two unrelated species evolve similar traits, to best exploit their environment.<\/p>\n

Archaeological data suggests dingoes came to Australia between 3,500 and 12,000 years ago, while thylacines have been present on the continent for much longer.<\/p>\n

When European settlers first arrived on Australia, they discovered dingoes living alongside Aboriginal Australians, sometimes wild and sometimes in a semi-domesticated state.<\/p>\n

Where did the thylacine live?<\/h2>\n

Fossil evidence and Aboriginal cave art has confirmed that thylacines once occupied mainland Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Thylacines became extinct on the mainland around 3,000 years ago, which coincides with the appearance of dingoes. However, some researchers claim that climate change and an increasing human population at the time may be to blame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever the cause, thylacines became restricted to Tasmania (which was never populated by dingoes), where they mostly inhabited woodland and grassland habitats.<\/p>\n