The prehistoric painting hints at what marsupial lions may have looked like, and suggests that they co-existed with early Australians.
Credit: Tim Willing
"Compared with the powerful forequarters, the hindquarters appear underdeveloped," write the authors. "This apparent asymmetry is not seen in rock art images of thylacines, where both hind- and forelimbs are usually of similar dimensions. However thylacoleos were equipped with powerful claws on the hind limbs and these appear to be depicted in this image."
The discovery suggests that early Aborigines and marsupial lions were contemporaries, and may also lend weight to the idea that the arrival of people contributed to the demise of the species.
Unanswered question
Australian palaeontologists John Long, of Museum Victoria in Melbourne, and Rod Wells, of Flinders University in South Australia, both agree that the animal pictured is likely to be Thylacoleo.
"I think there is a remarkable resemblance between the painting and [a] skeleton I have reconstructed myself," said Wells.
However, Steven Wroe, a palaeontologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, isn't convinced. Whilst conceding that the coexistence of marsupial lions and Australian aboriginals would be exciting, he believes the rock art could still be a representation of a thylacine.
Wroe points out that mainland Tasmanian tigers may have had a different pattern of stripes than the isolated Tasmanian population. "The fact that it has stripes at all, that are in any way similar to the Tasmanian tiger, suggests to me that it is a Tasmanian tiger" he told Cosmos Online.
