One of the other areas of the museum that I was given the opportunity to see is the basement room where the institution's preserved mammal collection is kept.  The Australian Museum is the country's oldest museum, and since its founding in 1827, it has become a vast repository of thousands of natural history specimens, including those of the thylacine.  Complete taxidermies, skins, skulls, and even a thylacine brain are housed here.  Seeing them, especially in person, always brings into such sharper focus the tragic story of how man so badly treated this species through many years of relentless persecution.  These sad remains are a physical reminder of an appalling human action that has left a permanent scar on the ecology of Australia.  On this and the following pages are a series of photos which depict various examples of thylacine specimens in the museum's collection.
 

Two young adult thylacines on the pull-out tray from the cabinet in which they are normally stored.  The one on the right is a female - its pouch was plainly visible.  I am unaware of the sex of the other specimen.

A close-up view of the head of the thylacine which is lying face-down in the previous photo.  A truly haunting face from the past; cotton is stuffed into the eye sockets to preserve the shape of the skin around the eyes.

Here is a close-up of the back of the thylacine shown in the previous photo.  From this you can get some impression of the coat texture of this species.  It is somewhere in between coarse and soft - rather similar to the coat of a kangaroo.  From my own observations, marsupials (except for perhaps the possums) do not tend to have the extremely fine, soft hair seen in many species of placental mammals.

This is the right hand (manus) of the female shown in the above photos.  Although often compared to that of a canid, it has some features which are actually very undog-like.  In particular, note the presence of a small yet reasonably developed thumb, as well as the broad design of the plantar pad.  In canids, the plantar pad is much more triangular.  Also, the thylacine's toes are positioned differently, are more elongate, and lack webbing between them.

Here is shown one of the collection's full thylacine taxidermies.  It was once on display in the museum's public viewing area.  The cabinet in which it rests also houses some skins as well as an assemblage of skulls and other preserved thylacine material.

A close-up of the same taxidermy, showing the beautiful stripes of this species.  Only a few other mammals have a stripe pattern similar to that of the thylacine.  One such species is the Zebra duiker (Cephalophus zebra), a small forest-dwelling antelope of west Africa.  Occasionally, skins of the zebra duiker have been confused for that of the thylacine - but closer examination reveals some differences in the form of the stripes.

A view of the head of the same specimen.  The position in which the body is mounted is not particularly realistic, but is typical of many taxidermies made during the nineteenth century.