{"id":524623,"date":"2026-04-11T05:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/524623\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T05:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:08:17","slug":"tasmanian-tiger-rock-paintings-discovered-in-australian-cave-are-less-than-1000-years-old-say-scientists-heres-why-thats-a-big-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/524623\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasmanian tiger rock paintings discovered in Australian cave are less than 1,000 years old, say scientists. Here’s why that’s a big deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The extinction of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine has been widely explored by science and in popular culture \u2013\u00a0when and why it took place or whether it in fact still survives in some of Tasmania\u2019s furthest outposts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Much less has been written about its cultural relevance today, but that is exactly what is highlighted by rock paintings discovered in a remote northern corner of Northern Territory \u2013\u00a0an area known as Arnhem Land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A team led by Professor Paul\u00a0Ta\u00e7on\u00a0of Brisbane-based Griffith University has been studying 14 depictions of thylacines<\/a> discovered in western Arnhem Land since 2018 and has concluded that two of these artworks are less than 1,000 years old.<\/p>\n

This is significant because the consensus is the thylacine went extinct on mainland Australia 3,000 years ago owing to a variety of factors including competition with introduced dingoes and hunting by humans, and so these paintings suggest this may not have been the case in this extreme location.<\/p>\n

\u201cArnhem Land is the only place where stories and a name for the thylacine \u2013\u00a0djankerrk \u2013 survive,\u201d says\u00a0Ta\u00e7on. \u201cThe artists who made the\u00a0more recent\u00a0paintings\u00a0may have seen actual living thylacines.\u201d It is also possible they were inspired by other paintings, he adds.<\/p>\n

\"InjalakThis image from Injalak Hill in Arnhem Land shows a rock painting of a thylacine with sharp teeth. Credit: Craig Banggar<\/p>\n

Ta\u00e7on\u2019s previous research has shown how thylacines are associated with what indigenous people call the Rainbow Serpent and also very strongly with water.<\/p>\n

In his new\u00a0research paper<\/a>,\u00a0he\u00a0notes that \u201cStories linking thylacines with rain, Rainbow Serpents, bodies of water and swimming suggest some knowledge of thylacine behaviour survives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The swimming ability of thylacines,\u00a0Ta\u00e7on\u00a0continues, was noted in the 1850s by the colonial administrator Joseph Milligan, who said \u201cThe aborigines report that this animal is a most powerful swimmer\u201d and \u201cthe nose, eyes and upper portion of the head are the only parts usually seen above water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MapMap showing the location of Awunbarna (Mt Borradaile) and Injalak Hill in Northern Territory, where the rock paintings were discovered. Credit: Andrea Jalandoni<\/p>\n

Other parts of the continent where numerous rock paintings of thylacines have been found include the Pilbara, a large and sparsely populated area of northern Western Australia and Kimberley, the northernmost part of the same state. Elsewhere they are much rarer, with a charcoal drawing in Wollemi National Park one of the few examples. In total, there are about 150.<\/p>\n

Joey\u00a0Nganjmirra, a\u00a0Djalama\u00a0man from Western Arnhem Land and co-author of the paper, says his ancestors used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thylacine lives on in western Arnhem Land not as a ghost from the past but as a meaningful creature that still has\u00a0present-day\u00a0significance,\u201d Ta\u00e7on says.<\/p>\n

Joey Nganjmirra identifies a thylacine. Credit: Andrea Jalandoni<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The extinction of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine has been widely explored by science and in popular culture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-524623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}