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GENOMICS

Thylacine tales
The genome of the extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, has been sequenced from a 109-year-
old museum specimen. The sequence resolves the phylogenetic placement of the species and reveals details of
convergent evolution between the thylacine and eutherian canines.

Ross Barnett and Eline Lorenzen

T
he history of the thylacine (Thylacinus closely related. In agreement with previous (insectivore carnivorans). The numbat, a
cynocephalus) is a stark warning analyses based on mitochondrial sequence small marsupial also known as the banded
from the recent past about how easily data4, the analysis placed the thylacine as the anteater, grouped as the sister lineage of
extinction occurs. This marsupial carnivore basal lineage in the order Dasyuromorphia the dasyurids, a monophyletic group
was found from Tasmania to New Guinea
during the Pleistocene epoch. When the a
human diaspora spread into Australasia
it disappeared first from Papua, then with
the arrival of the dingo during the mid-
Holocene it was quickly eradicated from
mainland Australia. The last bastion for
the species was Tasmania, isolated by the
formation of the Bass Strait towards the end
of the Pleistocene. But European settlers
blamed thylacines for killing their sheep,
and the local government and livestock
companies enacted attractive hunting
bounties on the animal. By 1909, when
the last bounty was taken1, the species was
on the edge of extinction and zoos paid
extravagant prices for live specimens. On
7 September 1936, the last thylacine —
nicknamed Benjamin (Fig. 1a) — died in
captivity, the same year that the species b
received full legal protection2.
Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution,
Feigin et al.3 present the thylacine genome, Dasyuridae
sequenced at 42×​coverage using tissue
from a pouch pup specimen housed in
the collections of the Museum Victoria in
Melbourne. The authors use the genome to
investigate the evolutionary relationship, Numbat
Dasyuromorphia
demographic history and genomic Myrmecobius fasciatus
underpinnings of convergent evolution
between the thylacine and the eutherian
canines.
It is hardly surprising that an animal as
mysterious as the thylacine has so far eluded Thylacine
Thylacinus cynocephalus
a definitive placement in the mammalian
family tree using standard methods. To
resolve the phylogenetic position of the
species, Feigin et al. use the presence and
absence of retroposons in a comparative
genomic analysis. Retroposons are Peramelemorphia
jumping elements that have been reverse
transcribed from RNA and are inserted into
new genomic regions over evolutionary
timescales — if the same loci are found in Fig. 1 | Phylogenetic placement of the Tasmanian tiger. a, Benjamin, the last thylacine, in Hobart Zoo,
the same position in two species but not Tasmania. b, Feigin and colleagues’ genomic analysis3 places the thylacine as the basal lineage in the
in others, the likelihood is that they are Dasyuromorphia. Credit: a, The Natural History Museum/Alamy Stock Photo.

Nature Ecology & Evolution | VOL 2 | JANUARY 2018 | 7–8 | www.nature.com/natecolevol 7

comprising the Tasmanian devil and its grey wolf (Canis lupus). These eutherian decades later; another 44 years would
associates (Fig. 1b)4. generalist carnivores are thought to occupy follow before the double helical structure
The thylacine shows remarkable a similar ecological niche to the extinct of DNA was discovered and its central
morphological similarities with eutherian thylacine. Feigin and colleagues found that, importance in biology was realized. The
canines and is a textbook example of for their dataset, diet explained skull shape sequencing of the thylacine genome will
convergent evolution: the lineages are variation irrespective of phylogeny and not bring this species back from extinction,
among the deepest divergence within that this has led to considerable evolution but it goes some way to showing us how
mammals and share a common ancestor in phylomorphospace for the thylacine much we have lost. ❐
as far back as 160 million years ago5. towards the Canidae. Previous studies
To understand the genetic basis of this based on postcranial elements6 have Ross Barnett1 and Eline Lorenzen2*
convergence, Feigin and colleagues studied shown that in elbow joint architecture the 1
Department of Archaeology, Durham University,
orthologous genes across the thylacine and a thylacine rather displays convergence Durham, UK. 2Natural History Museum of
list of taxa that included five wild eutherian with the Felidae, highlighting its unique Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen,
canines and the dog. No genes or conserved suite of characters. Denmark.
pathways associated with positive selection The thylacine study highlights the *e-mail: [email protected]
were shared among thylacine and eutherian continued importance of historic museum
canines, suggesting that protein coding collections in advancing our understanding Published online: 14 December 2017
genes are not a major driver of convergent of the natural world. Specimen C5757, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0384-3
evolution in these groups. The authors a one-month-old female, was collected
propose instead that non-coding regulatory with her three litter mates and their dead References
1. Guiler, E. R. Thylacine: The Tragedy of the Tasmanian Tiger
elements may play a part. mother in June 1909, the same year as the (Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne, 1985).
Feigin et al. also present geometric last thylacine bounty was paid in full. The 2. Paull, J. in Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across
morphometrics of skulls to assess how specimen was put in a glass container, the Asia-Pacific Region (eds Baldacchino, G. & Niles, D.) 153–168
(Springer, Tokyo, 2011).
the convergence between thylacines and covered in ethanol, and has been stored in 3. Feigin, C. Y. et al. Nat. Ecol. Evol. http://doi.org/10.1038/
eutherian carnivores has evolved. While the collections of the Museum Victoria ever s41559-017-0417-y (2017).
colloquially the thylacine has been described since. The curator at the time could not 4. Miller, W. et al. Genome Res. 19, 213–220 (2009).
5. Bininda-Emonds, O. R. et al. Nature 446, 507–512 (2007).
as a marsupial wolf, tiger or hyena, this have foreseen the role that C5757 would 6. Figueirido, B. & Janis, C. M. Biol. Lett. 7, 937–940 (2011).
geometric morphometric analysis of the play in advancing our understanding of
skull strongly places it alongside the canids, the evolution and ecology of the thylacine, Competing interests
especially the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and which would be forever lost less than two The authors declare no competing financial interests.

8 Nature Ecology & Evolution | VOL 2 | JANUARY 2018 | 7–8 | www.nature.com/natecolevol

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