TASMANIAN WOLF 
tremes (see page 523); they more closely resemble, however, 
the type of teeth seen in the fossil jaws (the likeness extends 
to the jaw bone itself) of such most primitive relics as Amphi- 
therium of the Jurassic, which is among the most antique of 
recognizable mammalian remains. It may be that this little 
Australian ant-eater is a 
direct survivor from the 
Secondary fauna. 
An allied but separated 
group is represented by the 
Tasmanian “zebra wolf” 
or thylacine. This much- 
dreaded beast is a long-bod- 
ied, short-legged, long-tailed, 
dog-headed animal, with the 
look of an ancient creodont 
and the manners of a modern 
wolf. As will be seen by the 
photograph, the head is 
large, the jaw powerful, the 
gape of the mouth extending 
back behind the eye, which 
is large, prominent, and very 
dark. The incisors do not 
correspond with those of our carnivores, being eight in the 
upper and six in the lower jaw. The canines are strong 
and fully an inch in length. A full-grown one is nearly 
six feet long to the end of the tail; and the coat is short, 
close, and of a dusky-tawny hue, marked upon the hinder 
part with about 16 blackish transverse bands. Its home 
is Tasmania, where it lurks among the rocky ravines of the 
interior mountains, sometimes as high as the snow line. When 
the island first began to be colonized it was numerous, finding 
plenty of native prey; but as soon as sheep were introduced 
511 
Copyright, N. Y. Zodl. Society. Sanborn, Phot. 
THYLACINE, OR TASMANIAN WOLF. 
