Theme 1: Cranial size and its functional implications
- “Thylacine crania are far larger than expected for their body mass… a large cranium counteracts the weaker structure of a long and narrow rostrum by increasing the absolute magnitude of rostral resilience to stress and bite force.” – speerer
Theme 2: Possible error in the figure caption/skull identification
- “Although similar in size, the thylacine skull (right) proved larger than a gray wolf skull.” This is the caption under an image in which the rightmost skull is decisively smaller than the other two. I think there’s an error. Perhaps the central skull is the one belonging to the Tasmanian tiger… – putzdown
- “Based on the nearby text I believe the right skull is a fox. And yeah the middle skull is then the Tasmanian tiger…” – gorgolo
Theme 3: Diet, livestock predation, extinction, and cultural fascination
- “They say it could not attack livestock, but was instead for snapping at smaller prey. I think such a creature probably could attack new born lambs and chickens.” – nephihaha
- “Interestingly the story of the Thylacines extinction starts a lot earlier than white settlement… Factors including the introduction of the dingo led to the extinction of the thylacine in all areas except Tasmania about 2,000 years ago.” – adaml_623
- “I've always found there to be something hauntingly beautiful about the Thylacine… It's my hope that one day a pocket of them are found alive out there but I know that's a pipe dream.” – bb123