Evolution and extinction are inextricably linked together. An understanding of one is incomplete without a comprehension of the other, and no animal embodies these complementary concepts better than Thylacinus cynocephalus.

The thylacine has not been forgotten. The extinct carnivore is a favorite of biology teachers and science writers – Richard Dawkins has mentioned it in at least three of his books – as a simple illustration of convergent evolution. Look at the skulls of a Tasmanian wolf and the placental grey wolf and, unless you are a skilled anatomist, you will be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two. Despite being separated by over 125 million years of evolution, a lineage of marsupial predator and