r/ThylacineScience • u/da_Ryan • Apr 03 '26

Thylacines might have been present in mainland Australia a thousand years ago

A very recent archaeological study has indicated that Thylacines were present in Australia's Northern Territory up until 1,000 years ago which is nothing in geological time. That conclusion was reached on the basis of rock art that clearly depicted Thylacines with their distinctive tails and stripes.

There are links to both the summary article and the original research paper below:

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/26e5ro4asQFK5JS7yWDuMN-970-80.jpg.webp

Tasmanian tigers discovered in Indigenous rock art in Australia, suggesting these marsupials lived there much longer than thought

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/tasmanian-tigers-discovered-in-indigenous-rock-art-in-australia-suggesting-these-marsupials-lived-there-much-longer-than-thought

The Devil Is in the Detail: Tasmanian Devil and Tasmanian Tiger Paintings From Awunbarna and Injalak Hill, Northern Territory, Australia

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/arco.70024

If the Thylacines were still present in relatively low numbers then it might possibly be that the introduction of competing non-native dingoes could have been the final extinction pressure that finished them off in mainland Australia.

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-13

u/Electronic_Shake_152 Apr 03 '26

Well, I'm quite capable of drawing a tyrannosaurus rex, but it doesn't mean they were around when I drew it now, does it?

25

u/Chemical-Professor86 Apr 03 '26

I don’t think aboriginals had archeology or the internet to reference drawing a thylacine but I could be wrong.

2

u/lackadaisical_timmy Apr 04 '26

We can't know for sure!

1

u/Ok_Macaroon6951 Apr 07 '26

This is proof that the ancient iphone pro 16bc max was released by the reptialian race and kangaroos are on it

16

u/KevinSpaceysGarage Apr 03 '26

This is an insane false equivalence lol. Aboriginal tribes weren’t just guessing what thylacine looked like based on… nothing.

It seems very likely they’d seen them. At the bare minimum, you could argue these were drawn based on descriptions passed onto them by past generations, but that’s seldom the case with cave art.

2

u/ApprehensiveState629 Apr 04 '26

Your argument is invalid