What did the Thylacine look like?
Westell 1910. The Book of the Animal Kingdom. Mammals. fig.159
The Thylacine was sandy yellowish-brown to grey in colour and had 15 to 20 distinct dark stripes across the back from shoulders to tail. Although the large head was dog- or wolf-like, the tail was short and stiff and the legs were relatively short. Body hair was dense, short and soft, to 15mm in length.
It had short ears about 80 mm long that were erect, rounded and covered with short fur. Jaws were large and powerful and there were 46 teeth. Adult male Thylacine were larger on average than females.
The female Thylacine had a back-opening pouch. The litter size was up to four and the young were dependent on the mother until at least half-grown. Interestingly, males also had a back-opening, partial pouch.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 1999, 2002
