Thylacoleo carnifex Owen, 1859
Marsupial lion
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Thylacoleo oweni McCoy, 1876:9; Thylacopardus australis Owen, 1888:99; Mylodon australis Krefft, 1870; Thylacoleo robustus Krefft, 1872a; Prochaerus celer de Vis, 1886
Synonymy follows (Anderson, 1929).
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 45.3 ± 0.85 ka Cal BP (Pate et al., 2002)
The marsupial lion was only a distant relative of the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus). The most recent dates so far found suggest that it survived up until at least 46,000 BC (Roberts et al. 2001; Pate et al., 2002). Akerman (1998, 2009) and Akerman and Willing (2009) have reported three candidate rock art images which may depict Thylacoleo. However, these claims have been described as "absurd" by (Bednarik, 2013:484) on the basis of the discrepancy between the latest known survival of Thylacoleo and the young age of the art, as well as the lack of fossils of Thylacoleo from the regions of the Kimberley and Arnhem Land.
Distribution
Australia
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 110kg (Johnson, 2006:20).
Biology & Ecology
It was a carnivore (Johnson, 2006:20).
Hypodigm
WAM 02.7.1
QMF44642 ("I1")
F51287 (Dawson, 1985:66)
F4664 (Dawson, 1985:66)
F18666 (Dawson, 1985:66)
SAM P16571 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P16723 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P16732 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P16731 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P16730 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P16717 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P28173 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P20804 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P45886 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P12384 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P12784 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P16714 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAMP30146 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P28182 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P22761 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
SAM P22793 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
FU 119 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
FU 120 (Beck et al., 2022:SM32)
Media
From roughly 6:00:
References
Original scientific description:
Owen, R. (1858). Odontology, pp. 407-484. In: The Encyclopaedia Britannica, or dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literature. 8th ed. Vol. 16. Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black.
Other references:
Akerman, Kim. (1998). A Rock Painting, Possibly of the Now Extinct Marsupial Thylacoleo (Marsupial Lion), from the North Kimberley, Western Australia. Beagle: The Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory 14: 117-121.
Akerman, Kim. (2009). Interaction between humans and megafauna depicted in Australian rock art? Antiquity 83(322).
Akerman, Kim and Willing, Tim. (2009). An ancient rock painting of a marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex, from the Kimberly, Western Australia. Antiquity 83(319).
Albert, Victor A. (1987). A Bungle in the Jungle, or, Why Specialization Is Important in Cryptozoology. Cryptozoology 6: 119-120.
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Brisbane Courier, 1870's
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Psychic Australian November 1976 [author? volume? pagination?]
ftp://rock.geosociety.org/pub/reposit/2007/2007016.pdf
https://twilightbeasts.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/the-pouched-lion/
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/84659#page/253/mode/1up
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54644#page/329/mode/1up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_tiger
http://malcolmscryptids.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/the-great-north-queensland-tiger-hunt.html
http://www.idriess.com.au/1thetiger.htm
http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/8347/thylacoleo-australian-quot-lion
http://malcolmscryptids.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-great-north-queensland-tiger-hunt.html
http://malcolmscryptids.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-on-queensland-marsupial-tiger.html
http://malcolmscryptids.blogspot.com/2014/08/strange-striped-animals-in-north.html
Agnozoology
Since the term 'cryptozoology' should be rejected (viz. semantic polyphyly), we need a suitable nominal replacement. I suggest agnozoology, which is etymologically the study of unidentified creatures: agnostos (unidentified) + zoo (creature) + logia (study). This renders the field as strictly concerned with taxonomic diagnosis and assignation, and not with unrelated issues such as "out of place" animals. The latter is the subject of conservation biology, since it concerns the global population size of animals. Even if there are multiple candidates1.
This does not have to rob one of the beloved notion of a 'cryptid', as something like 'agnostid' is neither likely to catch on nor demanded by the etymological replacement. It does however mean that 'cryptid' is not fully subsumed under agnozoology. The term 'cryptid' is semantically broader, and hence there are cryptids outside of agnozoology. For example, out of place animals.
1 An important clarification needs to be made here. It is perfectly possible that each of these candidates has not been formally described in the scientific literature. This is because taxonomic diagnosis is primitive, and formal description is not. Most obviously, formal description does not entail taxonomic validity. But more importantly, the diagnosis of a new species is not contingent upon publication. Otherwise we would have an impossible situation. No diagnosis until publication, but then no diagnosis to publish in the first place.
Striped, stocky and still surviving?
There are several cryptids which possibly find their true idenitites in Thylacoleo, or at least the thylacoleonid family in general (Wakaleo, etc.). These include the Queensland tiger, the striped marsupial cat and the aboriginal yarri. Descriptions vary, with some being general enough to be interpreted as being consistent with that of the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) (e.g. Naish, 2002). However, other descriptions are seemingly non-thylacine like, such as those of the animal being essentially a 'quoll on steroids'.
Healy & Cropper (1994:102) mention that the earliest possible European report ('tiger') is from Cardwell, Queensland in 1864, however the reportee was a particularly disreputable bullock driver in the employ of W. T. Scott. Either because of the reluctance to accept his report, or because they are simply unaware of it, most authors cite the first European encounter (1871?) as being that of the 13 year old son of police magistrate Brinsley G. Sheridan:
"In a letter addressed to Mr. Sclater [published 1871 in the Proceedings of the zoological Society of London], Mr. B. G. Sheridan, of Cardwell (Queensland), states, in fact, that his son, a boy of 13, who was accustomed to run the woods like an old hunter, was out one day accompanied by a small terrier, when he saw the latter obtain a scent and follow it up with eagerness. Curious to know what game he had to do with, the boy ran after his dog, and found himself face to face with an animal of the size of a dingo dog, with a round head like that of a cat, with a long tail, and with a body striped with yellow and black, and which was crouching in the high grass at about a mile from the coast. The dog and the savage beast soon grappled, and the boy, in order to aid his companion, tried to kill the enemy with a pistol shot, but having merely succeeded in wounding and rendering it more furious, he judged it prudent to beat a retreat." (Anonymous, 1890)
While this remains the earliest known European report that isn't dismissed on the basis of the reputation of the alleged witness, I have discovered on Trove (26 April 2019) an extremely tantalising description that could significantly extend the reports both geographically and temporally:
"We are informed that the tiger cat of the stations in the interior is twice the size of the specimen in question [i.e. 18-inch tail], and striped like the largest variety of the feline race. The striped tiger cat is said to be a formidable enemy to sheep." (Anonymous, 1868)
References
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Naish, Darren. (2017). The Ozenkadnook Tiger Photo Revealed as a Hoax. Blog Post at Tetrapod Zoology (3rd edition), 29 March, available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20170629060402/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-ozenkadnook-tiger-photo-revealed-as-a-hoax/
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