Tasmania’s thylacine is usually called the Tasmanian tiger because of its stripes and the more fearsome reputation of that animal compared to Tasmanian wolf – the other name for the creature that is not related to either and a marsupial rather than a placental mammal. However, some thylacine researchers have proposed a “convergent evolution” between Tasmanian wolves and actual ones (
Canis lupus) where the species both developed similar traits by existing in similar times and climates with similar environments and potential prey. This was eventually linked to protein-coding regions of their genomes that were involved in the development of bone, cartilage and facial muscles – areas that gave them both their familiar wolf heads. One of those researchers is Professor Andrew Pask of the University of Melbourne who has just released a new study showing that these wolf heads looked the same from newborn to puppies to adults. Could there be more of a connection than just converge