.
PALAEONTOLOGY:
- PREHISTORIC RANGE OF THE THYLACINE -
(page 3)
.

 
.
Palaeontological evidence (continued):

     In Western Australia, skeletal remains from recent times have been unearthed at Tunnel Creek in the Napier Range.  Older specimens have been found at Murray Cave, some 40 km north of Perth, and at Horseshoe Cave near Madura (Archer 1974).  In Monajee Cave, Cape Range, undated bones were found with those of a dingo (Kendrick and Porter 1973).  A complete skeleton was found within Coronation Cave in the state's southwest (Glauert 1954), and further specimens were discovered at the Mammoth and Museum Caves (Glauert 1954), Moondyne Cave, Augusta (Howlett 1960), and Murra-el-elevyn Cave on the Nullarbor (Partridge 1967).  Remains of Sarcophilus (Tasmanian devil) were associated with many of these sites.  At Webb's Cave, near Eucla, devils left more than just their bones.  Found inside the cave were their coprolites (fossil dung), one of which contained a thylacine molar, which was presumably scavenged (Cook 1963).  Additional remains were found in an ancient Aboriginal midden (refuse pile) at Devil's Lair (Baynes et al. 1975).

    In 2011, thylacine footprints were discovered by Lindsay Hatcher (caver and environment project manager for the Augusta Margaret River Tourism Association) in the soft mud of Augusta's Jewel Cave, in the far southwest of WA.  Hatcher (Anon. 2011) states: "Thylacine footprints have never been found in any other cave in WA, and probably in any other cave in Australia.  In the 1960s we found the bones of a Tasmanian tiger right next to where we have just discovered the footprints, right next to where the animal had perished".

thylacine skull from the Nullarbor Plain - palatal view
.
Thylacine footprints found in Augusta's Jewel Cave, southwest WA.
Courtesy: Augusta Margaret River Tourism Association.
.
thylacine skull from the Nullarbor Plain - dorsal view
.
thylacine skull from the Nullarbor Plain - palatal view
.
Dorsal and palatal views of a Holocene-age thylacine skull found in a Nullarbor cave.
Photos courtesy of Lindsay Hatcher.

    From the caves of the Nullarbor Plain have come the remains of many animals which lived thousands of years ago.  The Nullarbor is a region of karst topography (an area of limestone infiltrated by numerous caves created by the drainage of water in ages long past).  Animals frequently wandered into the caves and were unable to make their way out, a process which continues to this day.  The environmental conditions within the caves have often maintained animal remains in a remarkable state of preservation.

.
.
Acknowledgement: This subsection of the Thylacine Museum has been referenced (in part) from: SMITH, M., 1982. Review of the Thylacine (Marsupialia, Thylacinidae). In "Carnivorous Marsupials - Vol. 1" (Ed. M. Archer). Roy. Zool. Soc. N.S.W.: Sydney. pp. 237-53.
References
.
back to: Prehistoric Range of the Thylacine (page 2) return to the section's introduction forward to: Prehistoric Range of the Thylacine (page 4)


Search the Thylacine Museum
Site Map
Website copyright © C. Campbell's NATURAL WORLDS.
Photographs and other illustrations (where indicated) are © C. Campbell's NATURAL WORLDS.
Other photos and images are © their respective owners.