.
The distribution of the thylacine formerly extended throughout much of
the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea, and it has only been within
quite recent geological times that it disappeared from these regions.
A few fragments of bone, found in association with a thylacine humerus
discovered at Tunnel Creek, Western Australia, have been radiocarbon dated
at 0±180 years BP, though this date may not apply to the humerus
itself (Archer 1974). Apart from this, the most recent finds are
the 3,000 year old specimens from Padypadiy, Northern Territory (Calaby
and White 1967) and Murray Cave, Western Australia (Archer 1974).
| Very accurate
drawings of thylacines were found by Wright (1972) in caves in the Pilbara
near Mt. Edgar Station, Juna Downs and Tom Price Station. The animal
he found a depiction of at Abydos Station could be of either a thylacine
or numbat (Myrmecobius
fasciatus). This drawing was older than the others,
and had been created using an engraving technique instead of by pecking.
It is unlikely that the stripes shown in this piece of art were simply
a stylized portrayal of body contour since they were absent from the other
species depicted. |
.
| Aboriginal
drawing of a thylacine from Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. |
|
.
| This
Aboriginal drawing of what appears to be an adult and young thylacine is
from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The image is estimated
to be some 6000 years old. |
|
The cave drawings of Arnhem Land and its surroundings have been little
investigated. An exposed vertical wall was discovered by E. J. Brandl
on the Upper East Alligator River which bears what appears to be a very
slender thylacine (Brandl 1972). At Deaf Adder Creek, sheltered beneath
a nine-metre sandstone rock, was a 35 cm (approx. 13.78 in.) figure of
a thylacine, painted in red (ibid). Further along the creek was found
a portrait of a 35 cm striped animal with an elongated tail and forelegs
much longer than its hindlegs. An additional red ochre painting,
measuring 110 cm (approx. 43.30 in.) was found in an extremely inaccessible
location at the Caldwell River Crossing. |
| Local Aboriginals
were interviewed, but none were able to identify the subjects even from
legends (ibid). According to later press reports, (Anon. 1974 a,b),
ten comparable paintings, including one of a female feeding her young,
have been found in a valley in the Mt Brockman massif of Kakadu National
Park by Messrs. Chaloupka and Woerle, who possibly were the first non-Aboriginals
to enter the valley. |
.
| Yet
another ancient Aboriginal depiction of a possible thylacine. This
one is from northern Australia. |
|
|
. |
