The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf?
The extinct thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) and the extant grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) are textbook examples of convergence between marsupials and placentals. Craniodental studies confirm the thylacine's carnivorous diet, but little attention has been paid to its postcranial skeleton, which...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 2024-06-02T08:04:51+00:00 The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? Figueirido, Borja Janis, Christine M. 2011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Biology Letters volume 7, issue 6, page 937-940 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X journal-article 2011 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 2024-05-07T14:16:16Z The extinct thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) and the extant grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) are textbook examples of convergence between marsupials and placentals. Craniodental studies confirm the thylacine's carnivorous diet, but little attention has been paid to its postcranial skeleton, which would confirm or refute rare eyewitness reports of a more ambushing predatory mode than the pack-hunting pursuit mode of wolves and other large canids. Here we show that thylacines had the elbow morphology typical of an ambush predator, and propose that the ‘Tasmanian tiger’ vernacular name might be more apt than the ‘marsupial wolf’. The ‘ niche overlap hypothesis ’ with dingoes ( Canis lupus dingo ) as a main cause of thylacine extinction in mainland Australia is discussed in the light of this new information. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus The Royal Society Biology Letters 7 6 937 940 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
The extinct thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) and the extant grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) are textbook examples of convergence between marsupials and placentals. Craniodental studies confirm the thylacine's carnivorous diet, but little attention has been paid to its postcranial skeleton, which would confirm or refute rare eyewitness reports of a more ambushing predatory mode than the pack-hunting pursuit mode of wolves and other large canids. Here we show that thylacines had the elbow morphology typical of an ambush predator, and propose that the ‘Tasmanian tiger’ vernacular name might be more apt than the ‘marsupial wolf’. The ‘ niche overlap hypothesis ’ with dingoes ( Canis lupus dingo ) as a main cause of thylacine extinction in mainland Australia is discussed in the light of this new information. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Figueirido, Borja Janis, Christine M. |
spellingShingle |
Figueirido, Borja Janis, Christine M. The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
author_facet |
Figueirido, Borja Janis, Christine M. |
author_sort |
Figueirido, Borja |
title |
The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
title_short |
The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
title_full |
The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
title_fullStr |
The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
title_full_unstemmed |
The predatory behaviour of the thylacine: Tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
title_sort |
predatory behaviour of the thylacine: tasmanian tiger or marsupial wolf? |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Biology Letters volume 7, issue 6, page 937-940 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0364 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
6 |
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937 |
op_container_end_page |
940 |
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1800749519415017472 |