Scientists at Flinders University and the University of Melbourne studying thylacine skulls discovered that despite being likened to northern hemisphere predators like wolves and wild dogs, to the point that they were given the species name cynocephalus meaning 'dog-head,' Tasmanian tigers were markedly different.
Skull specimens revealed the apex predator's jaws were likely unsuited to holding down large animals like sheep. Instead, their long, deep jaws would have allowed them to quickly subdue small prey with powerful snapping bites.
The unique combination of features found in their skulls did not match those present in any living carnivorous mammals.
Researcher Dr Douglass Rovinsky explained that even though the average thylacine weighed half as much as the average wolf, its oversized skull was roughly the same size.
"But while it was big, it wasn't really shaped like the skull of a big predator. Instead, the thylacine's snout was long and slender, almost delicate - not robust like the snout of a grey wolf. It very much looks like the snout of a fox or jackal, which can be much smaller than thylacines," Dr Rovinsky said.
While the 'big head, lethal snap' adaptation is unusual in mammals, it is commonly found in other animals.
"Many crocodiles and predatory fishes have long, fast-snapping jaws used to catch agile prey like fish. Their jaws are often much longer, and frequently sport tall and widened tips," said study lead Professor Vera Weisbecker, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University.
This unusual combination allowed thylacines to catch small prey like bandicoots, but would not have been conducive to hunting large livestock.
"Our latest findings on their feeding adaptations counter the myths that drove the thylacine to extinction," Prof Weisbecker said.
Noting thylacines, being marsupials, were more closely related to kangaroos than dogs, Prof Weisbecker explained that misconceptions about their hunting habits contributed to their eventual extinction.
Widely considered a threat to livestock, the Tasmanian government introduced bounties to encourage the hunting of thylacines in the 19th century, contributing to the decimation and eventual extinction of the wild population.
The last known Tasmanian tiger died at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo in 1936.
"Thylacines were hunted because of myths that they were ferocious predators of livestock, when there was little evidence for this. Their extinction is a story of ignorance and lack of respect for Australia's unique wildlife and its Indigenous custodians," Prof Weisbecker said.
"As a country at the global forefront of mammal extinctions, we need to do all we can to safeguard equally irreplaceable surviving species."
