page_title: Thylacoleo
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Thylacoleo / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: fossil of Thylacoleo, an extinct marsupial
context_page_description: Thylacoleo is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene. Some of these "marsupial lions" were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of that time, with Thylacoleo carnifex approaching the weight of a small lion. The estimated average weight for the species ranges from 101 to 130 kg.
context_section_description: Pound for pound, Thylacoleo carnifex had the strongest bite of any mammal species, living or extinct; a T. carnifex weighing 101 kg (223 lb) had a bite comparable to that of a 250 kg African lion, and research suggests that Thylacoleo could hunt and take prey much larger than itself. Larger animals that were likely prey include Diprotodon spp. and giant kangaroos. It seems improbable that Thylacoleo could achieve as high a bite force as a modern-day lion; however, this might have been possible when taking into consideration the size of its brain and skull. Carnivores usually have rather large brains when compared to herbivorous marsupials, which lessens the amount of bone that can be devoted to enhancing bite force. Thylacoleo however, is thought to have had substantially stronger muscle attachments and therefore a smaller brain. Canids possessed elongated skulls, while cats tend to possess foreshortened ones. The similarities between cat morphology and that of Thylacoleo indicates that although it was a marsupial, biologically it possessed greater similarities to cats, and as a result had a higher capacity for bite strength than other animals within its own infraclass.
  It also had extremely strong fore limbs, with retractable, cat-like claws, a trait previously unseen in marsupials. Thylacoleo also possessed enormous hooked claws set on large semiopposable thumbs, which were used to capture and disembowel prey. The long muscular tail was similar to that of a kangaroo. Specialised tail bones called chevrons allowed the animal to balance on its back legs, and freed the front legs for slashing and grasping.
  
  Its strong forelimbs, retracting claws, and incredibly powerful jaws mean that Thylacoleo possibly climbed trees and perhaps carried carcasses to keep the kill for itself (similar to the leopard today). The climbing ability would have also helped them climb out of caves, which could therefore have been used as dens to rear their young.
  Due to its unique predatory morphology, scientists repeatedly claim Thylacoleo to be the most specialised mammalian carnivore of all time. Thylacoleo had vertical shearing 'carnassial' cheek teeth that are relatively larger than in any other mammalian carnivore. Thylacoleo was clearly derived from the diprotodontian ancestry due to its incisor morphology and is distinguished by the pronounced development of upper and lower third premolars which functioned as extreme carnassials with complementary reduction in the molar teeth row. They also had canines but they served little purpose as they were stubby and not very sharp.
  Thylacoleo was 71 cm (28 in) at the shoulder and about 114 cm (45 in) long from head to tail. The species T. carnifex is the largest, and skulls indicate they averaged 101 to 130 kg (223 to 287 lb), and individuals reaching 124 to 160 kg (273 to 353 lb) were common, and the largest weight was of 128–164 kg (282–362 lb). Fully grown, Thylacoleo carnifex would have been close to the same size as a jaguar.
caption: Skull of T. carnifex
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