Skull morphology of the extinct Tasmanian tiger suggests unique biting style

Abstract

The recently extinct thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) was the largest modern marsupial predator. It is considered a classic example of evolutionary convergence due to striking similarities with placental canids (e.g., foxes and wolves), particularly in the skull, despite ~160 million years of evolutionary separation. However, we here present geometric and linear morphometric evidence that the thylacine’s cranial form arises from a mosaic of traits not represented among canids or other living mammalian carnivores. Thylacines had disproportionately large heads, tall and gracile snouts with a flared canine region, and conspicuously large infraorbital foramina. Many of these traits suggest adaptations to fast, high-impact snapping behaviour in prey capture, as proposed for several living and extinct predatorial vertebrates with similar trait combinations. The thylacine’s cranial function may therefore not be inferable from observation of living mammals. However, genomic progress presents new opportunities for future insights into the evolution and development of thylacine cranial adaptation. The recently extinct thylacine was Australia’s largest marsupial predator and famously likened to dog-family carnivorans such as wolves. However, here the authors show that its skull functioned differently in prey capture compared to any living mammalian carnivore.