... the Tasmanian Tiger!
In the Australia exhibit of the National Museum of Natural History's Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals, look beyond the dingo, and behind the gossamer fabric screen at the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), a rare mounted specimen of an extinct species of carnivorous marsupial that once lived throughout Australian continent, including the island of Tasmania. Printed on the screen is the title “An Extinction Story” and the question “What happened when these two predators faced off?” The dingo—a wild dog that arrived in Australia with Asian seafarers 3,500 years ago—and the thylacine, are not related species. However, as Australia's top predators, they shared a similar diet. As the dingo spread throughout the Australian continent, the thylacine disappeared, apparently surviving only on the isolated southern island of Tasmania by the time that European settlers arrived in Australia just over 200 years ago ...
Read the complete story on your 2012 Museum Madness Champion here!
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
Image Caption and Credit: Two of the National Zoo’s thylacines, probably the surviving offspring of the original female, outside the Carnivora House, c. 1905. One of these animals (most likely the one in front) is USNM 125345, a specimen recently DNA-sequenced by a team of international scientists. Credit: Photo by E. J. Keller; National Zoological Park.


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