A single genus and species makes up this family of metatheria. The marsupial wolf, now probably extinct, was once widespread in Australia and New Guinea. Its last stronghold was in Tasmania. The last known individual died in captivity in 1936.

 

Thylacines were clearly related to the dasyuromorphia, based based on morphological and molecular evidence. They were polyprotodont, with dental formula 4/3, 1/1, 3/3, 4/4 = 46; and they were not syndactylous. They differ from other dasyuroids most conspicuously in their size and body form; these large, wolflike animals reached a weight of 35 kg and had long, canid-like limbs with digitigrade posture.

 

Competition from dingos and domestic dogs, hunting by European sheep ranchers, and an epidemic of distemper have all been blamed for the decline of the thylacine.

 

    Technical characters 

 

 

  Literature and references cited 

 

Feldhamer, G. A., L. C. Drickamer, S. H. Vessey, and J. F. Merritt. 1999. Mammalogy. Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology. WCB McGraw-Hill, Boston. xii+563pp.

 

Marshall, L. G. 1984. Monotremes and marsupials. Pp 59-115 in Anderson, S. and J. Knox Jones, eds, Orders and Families of Recent Mammals of the World. John Wiley and Sons, NY. xii+686 pp.

 

Strahan, R. (ed.). 1995. Mammals of Australia. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 756 pp.

 

Vaughan, T. A. 1986. Mammalogy. Third Edition. Saunders College Publishing, Fort Worth. vi+576 pp.

 

Vaughan, T. A., J. M. Ryan, N. J. Czaplewski. 2000. Mammalogy. Fourth Edition. Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia. vii+565pp.