{"id":664980,"date":"2026-08-31T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/664980\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:00:15","slug":"research-challenges-previously-held-ideas-about-tasmanian-tiger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/664980\/","title":{"rendered":"Research challenges previously held ideas about Tasmanian tiger"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Australian study has shed light on how the thylacine subdued its prey and what kinds of animals it likely ate, further undermining a key reason that led to its extinction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study from Flinders University and the University of Melbourne analysed thylacine skulls.<\/p>\n

Researchers found the combination of an oversized skull, long and tall upper jaw and mace-like widened snout meant the thylacine \u2014 also known as the Tasmanian tiger \u2014 had a “bite unlike any other living meat-eating mammal”.<\/p>\n

They concluded the thylacine’s biting behaviour enabled it to use “high-impact snapping” to catch small-to-medium prey, such as bandicoots, as opposed to larger animals, such as sheep.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A digital reconstruction of a CT-scanned thylacine skull from the study, which shows the canine teeth coloured pink. (Supplied: Vera Weisbecker)<\/p>\n

Professor Vera Weisbecker, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, said their work shed new light on how the thylacine subdued its prey.<\/p>\n

“The main novelty of our work really is that you can’t really compare the thylacine to any of the animals that it’s been compared to before \u2026 it’s a very unique thing,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr Weisbecker said.<\/p>\n

The thylacine survived in Tasmania through to the 1900s but was targeted by farmers after being blamed for killing sheep and other livestock.<\/p>\n

This led to a government bounty for thylacines, which accelerated its decline.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The last thylacine in captivity, at Beaumaris Zoo Hobart in 1933. (Supplied: David Fleay)<\/p>\n

A study in 2011 revealed that due to thylacines’ weak jaws, it was unlikely they could kill and eat sheep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr Weisbecker said their research also found the thylacine was unique.<\/p>\n

“As the thylacine went extinct, largely because people thought it was a wolf-like predator of sheep, it was definitely a dangerous predator to some animals, but it hunted animals in a way that no other mammal that is alive today probably hunted,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When the thylacine was sent extinct, we lost an animal that really was unique to the entire planet.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thylacine’s scientific name is Thylacinus cynocephalus. Cynocephalus means “dog head”.<\/p>\n

But Dr Weisbecker said thylacines were more closely related to kangaroos than to dogs.<\/p>\n

“People often think of it as a dog-like animal, but it’s actually a marsupial mammal \u2014 just like kangaroos and koalas \u2014 and also it’s reasonably closely related to the Tasmanian devil,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Australian study has shed light on how the thylacine subdued its prey and what kinds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,19,17,133,53529,1002,270224,280900,40244,461],"class_list":["post-664980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-skull","tag-study","tag-tasmanian-tiger","tag-tassie-tiger","tag-thylacine","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117189544802605206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}