The thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, was the largest carnivorous marsupial of modern times. Native to Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea, the thylacine quickly went extinct at the start of the twentieth century, following an increase of demand for its pelts. The last known thylacine died in 1936, in Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania, and little is known about the species’ natural behavior. New research however, gives humans a better glimpse into brains and programming behind one of Australia’s most fascinating predators.

Dr. Gregory Berns of Emory University and Dr. Ken Ashwell of the University of New South Wales scanned thylacine brains and reconstructed neural connections in an effort to better understand the specific functions of the thylacine brain and behavior. Only four surviving specimens of the brain exist, and their study gained access to two of them.

“One was provided by the Smithsonian Institution, taken from a male Tasmanian tiger after it died at the National Zoological Park in 1905. The other specimen, loaned to the researchers by the Australian Museum in Sydney, came from an animal that died during the 1930s.”, claimed researchers.

They compared the structure of Thylacine brains to those of Tasmanian devils. The researchers found that the thylacine brains had larger caudate zones than the Tasmanian devil brains. This suggests that thylacines devoted more of their brains to complex thinking, particularly action planning and decision making.

These findings match with what we know of the two animals. Tasmanian devils are known to be scavengers while thylacines were hunters. The neural rewiring done by the researchers provides anecdotal evidence that thylacines occupied a more complex predatory brain than their scavenger cousin, the Tasmanian devil.

These findings are fascinating because they give us new information regarding an animal less than 100 years extinct. It’s seems strange that we had never gathered much information about the thylacine prior to its extinction. However, the resurgence in fascination and curiosity about the animal is exciting to see. Hopefully new research and discoveries will be made in the near future, shedding more light on the thylacines life.

 

 

Image result for thylacine

Source Article: http://www.sci-news.com/biology/thylacine-brain-structure-04549.html

 

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