After carefully extracting the brain from the skull (which had yellowed and hardened with immersion in alcohol) Beddard proceeds to give detailed measurements.  He notes that the total length of the brain as measured from the end of the cerebellum to the anterior extremity of the olfactory lobe was 76 mm (3 in.) and that the greatest length of the cerebral hemispheres was 48 mm (1.89 in.) with a height of 26 mm (1.02 in.).  Beddard then discussed the historical observations that were made on the thylacine brain by Flower (1865) and Owen (1868) and from a cranial cast by Gervais (1837) and notes their specific comments.

    Beddard states: 

    "Since the thylacine is an animal which is getting scarcer, I have thought that an attempt at a fuller description of the brain than is to be found in the memoirs cited might be acceptable".

    He proceeds to compare the structure of the thylacine brain with that of the Bennett's wallaby (Halmaturus bennetti =Macropus rufogriseus) and Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) with specific reference to the position of the cerebellum and cerebral hemispheres.
 

He notes that the cerebral hemispheres in the thylacine are not greatly convoluted but when compared to the opossum (Didephis sp.) and the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) the degree of convolution increases between the smaller and larger forms.He further notes that the sulci are less numerous and shallower in the thylacine brain when compared to that of a kangaroo of similar size.  He concludes with a discussion on the lobar divisions and specific arrangement of fissures of the cerebral hemispheres with reference to other species including the extinct Marsupial lion - Thylacoleo.  The preserved brain of Beddard’s specimen is now in the collection of the Oxford University Museum (Source: ITSD 2005).

. The articulated skeleton (replica) of Thylacoleo carnifex, a lion-sized, Australian marsupial predator.  Thylacoleo became extinct during the Pleistocene.  Further information about this species is available at my website entitled "Thylacoleo - Australia's Marsupial Lion".

    James Peter Hill (1873-1954) was an eminent embryologist who specialised in the study of monotremes and marsupials.  Born and educated in Scotland, he became a demonstrator of biology at the University of Sydney in 1892, and Lecturer on Embryology in 1904.  Hill went on to become Professor of Embryology at University College in London from 1921 to 1938.  Hill dissected the reproductive tract of a female thylacine sent to him by Alexander Morton, the curator of the Royal Society of Tasmania's Museum in Hobart on 5 August 1902.  Hill's working notebook still survives together with his dissection of the female reproductive tract preserved in spirit (specimen MA 840).  Hill's greatest legacy however is his collection of stained slides of the reproductive anatomy of the female thylacine, which number some 200 slides in total.  The slides detail the right and left ovaries, utero-tubal junction, infundibulum of the fallopian tube, os uterus and cervix.  The collection was recently moved from the Hubrecht Laboratory in the Netherlands to its new home at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin in August 2004 (Source: ITSD 2005).