The last known Tasmanian tiger’s remains, which were believed to have been lost for 85 years, were discovered hidden in a museum cupboard in Australia.
The thylacine at Hobart Zoo died in captivity in 1936, and its body was sent to a nearby museum.
But the fate of its skin and skeleton after that has remained a mystery.
The remains were thought to have been thrown out when the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery lost sight of them.
They were always at the museum, kept but not properly catalogued, according to recent research.
As no thylacine material from 1936 had been recorded, ‘several museum curators and researchers hunted for its remains for years without success,’ said Robert Paddle.
‘It was believed that its body had been dumped.’
However, he and one of the curators of the museum discovered an unpublished taxidermist’s report, which prompted an analysis of the museum’s holdings.
In a cabinet in the museum’s education division, they discovered the missing female specimen.
The curator, Kathryn Medlock, informed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that although it had been displayed as a travelling exhibit throughout Australia, no one had realised it was the last thylacine.
She explained, ‘It was selected because it was the greatest skin in the collection.’
They believed there were creatures in the jungle at the time.
The skeleton and skin are currently on display in the Hobart museum. Marsupial was then only discovered on Tasmania, where it was eventually hunted to extinction.
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