Figure 1. The thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus.

(a) Young male thylacine in Hobart Zoo in 1928, photograph (Q4437). (b) One of the preserved pouch young specimens (head length 34 mm) from which DNA was extracted, from the Museum Victoria collection. (c-f) The skull of the thylacine (c,e) compared with that of the domestic dog Canis canis (d,f). The morphology of the head shows remarkable convergent evolution. However, there are some differences: in marsupials, the lacrymal extends outside the orbit and the angle of the dentary is medially inflected (c). The thylacine palatine has the vacuities characteristic of marsupial skulls (e). The teeth also show striking convergent evolution but the muzzle of the thylacine is quite narrow compared to that of the dog (e,f). Scale bar = 5cm.