Australia’s extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was not the powerful predator European settlers had assumed based on experiences with the dogs and wolves of their homeland, scientists say.
In a recent study of the skull of this creature, famously hunted to extinction, researchers from Flinders University and the University of Melbourne found something unexpected: the thylacine likely hunted only small prey. The team presented these findings in a paper published in Nature Communications, challenging the assumption that the Tasmanian tiger targeted large animals like sheep.
According to the new research, false European assumptions brought to a new land led to the overhunting and extinction of the thylacine species.
Reconsidering the Thylacine
The primary discovery in the work was that the thylacine’s long, deep jaw shape would be poorly suited to holding down large animals. Instead, it would be more effective at delivering a powerful snap to a much smaller animal.
“Our latest findings on their feeding adaptations counter the myths that drove the thylacine to extinction,” said lead author Professor Vera Weisbecker, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University. “Thylacines were often compared to Northern Hemisphere predators such as wolves, jackals and foxes from the dog family Canidae. This resemblance gave them their species name ‘cynocephalus’, meaning ‘dog-head.’”
While the animal may have had some superficial resemblance to a wolf or dog, they followed a quite different evolutionary trajectory. Instead of being closely related to canines, they were more similar to kangaroos. Thylacines were marsupials, pouch-bearing mammals that separated from the broader mammalian lineage in the time of the dinosaurs.
The Strange Thylacine Skull
The researchers say the thylacine skull combines a set of features seen in no other living carnivorous mammal, making it a true outlier. At a glance, the team noted the extinct animal’s large skull, with its long, tall upper jaw that protrudes and ends in a wide snout—an unusual feature that is worthy of more detailed study.
“Even though the average thylacine may have weighed only half as much as the average wolf, its vastly oversized skull is about as large as a grey wolf’s skull,” said co-author Dr Douglass Rovinsky. “But while it was big, it wasn’t really shaped like the skull of a big predator. Instead, the thylacine’s snout was long and slender, almost delicate – not robust like the snout of a grey wolf. It very much looks like the snout of a fox or jackal, which can be much smaller than thylacines.”
Instead of holding down large animals, the researchers say these jaws would be better suited to capturing bandicoots, an animal similar in size to a rabbit, with a powerful snap.
“The longer a jaw is, the faster its tip moves when an animal bites. This increases the impact of the strike. We think that the thylacine’s huge skull size allowed it to withstand these bite forces,” says Professor Weisbecker.
Similar Carnivore Skulls
Intriguingly, while this skull configuration is not seen in carnivorous mammals, large-headed hunters with powerful snapping jaws are common outside of the mammal group. This shape is particularly useful in aquatic environments, where fast, slippery fish are a primary target for predators.
Long, tall jaws with a wide tip are frequently found in crocodiles and some predatory fish. While the shape is conducive to hunting, it is typically used to capture smaller, highly agile prey.
“Thylacines were hunted because of myths that they were ferocious predators of livestock, when there was little evidence for this. Their extinction is a story of ignorance and lack of respect for Australia’s unique wildlife and its Indigenous custodians,” Professor Weisbecker concluded. “As a country at the global forefront of mammal extinctions, we need to do all we can to safeguard equally irreplaceable surviving species.”
The paper, “Skull Morphology of the Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Suggests Unique Biting Style,” appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on August 31, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.