The puzzling dingo-like development of Australia's most fabled extinct animal, the Tasmanian tiger, has been demystified by a group of Victorian scientists.
The researchers, from Museums Victoria and the University of Melbourne, published a joint study on Wednesday which sheds new light on the long-gone animal's juvenile transformation from pouch-dwelling marsupial to canine-like creature.
Using CT scans of 11 rare joey specimens, sourced from as far away as Prague, the Melbourne-based team created developmental 3D models of the thylacine, more commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger.
"This kind of technology is letting us see into the past," the study's senior co-author Dr Christy Hipsley told reporters.
"And look at not only the adult morphology of the animal but actually how it attained that over time, which is pretty extraordinary."
The beyond-the-grave reconstruction indicated the tiger's jellybean-sized joeys started developing their renowned dog- and wolf-like features about five weeks after birth, despite the species' marsupial heritage.
"That pouch period for marsupials is really critical ... they're undergoing huge amounts of change," Ms Hipsley said.
"For us to have that entire period from basically the first week up to the 12th week, when they're emerging from the pouch, was just really lucky."
Despite the tiger's evolution as a dog doppelganger, the same Melbourne team - in a joint 2017 study - sequenced its genome for the first time and found the species had not shared canine ancestry since the Triassic period, 160 million years ago.
"The fact that they've overcome that amount of time to look almost indistinguishable is one of the best examples we have of convergent evolution," she said.
In a twist to the stripy tale, two of the thylacine samples provided by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery turned out to be incorrectly labelled - showing the technology's usefulness to verify delicate, old specimens.
The native tiger, which was isolated to Tasmania after disappearing off the Australian mainland about 3000 years ago, was known for its sandy yellow-brown fur and distinct set of black stripes across its midriff, hind legs and tail.
It was hunted out of existence, with the last known tiger dying in captivity at Hobart Zoo in 1936, but repeated 'sightings' have continued to cement the species' place in Australian folklore.
Australian Associated Press
