Thylacine skull study uncovers a bite pattern unmatched among living carnivores

A Flinders University-led analysis of thylacine skulls indicates their jaws were not built for tackling large prey like sheep, but rather for delivering powerful snapping bites on smaller animals. The researchers found a unique combination of skull features—oversized cranium, long deep upper jaw, and widened snout—that does not align with any known adaptation in modern carnivorous mammals. The findings challenge the historical comparisons to wolves and dogs, emphasizing that thylacines were marsupials more closely related to kangaroos.

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The study, published in Nature Communications, involved researchers from Flinders University and the University of Melbourne. They compared thylacine skulls to those of gray wolves, finding the thylacine's skull was similar in size despite the animal weighing roughly half as much. However, the snout was long and slender, resembling a fox or jackal, not the robust build of a wolf.

This unique combination—oversized cranium, long deep upper jaw, and widened sn