Reconstruction of Thylacinus megiriani by P. Murray

Thylacinus fossils are extremely rare at Alcoota. Scientists believe that Thylacinus megiriani, together with crocodiles and giant iguanas, were probably the only predators at Alcoota. They lived together with herds of large marsupials and large birds.

There were forests and a permanent water supply at Alcoota when the Thylacinus lived there in the Miocene period about 8 million years ago.

Scientists have found many bones at Alcoota all jammed together from animals that died in the space of a few years. One theory about what happened at Alcoota is that the climate was very unpredictable and there was little or no rain for a few years in that area.

Plants died and the animals that ate plants died of starvation. Animals that ate other animals such as the Thylacinus megiriani would not have had a regular food source and they too would have died out.

Part of the jaw of a Thylacinus megiriani, Museum of Central Australia