The Tasmanian Tiger: the Tragic Tale of How the World Lost its Most Mysterious Predator.The doglike Tasmanian tiger Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf: see thylacine. once roamed freely through Australia and as far north as New Guinea. But once Europeans arrived in the 1800s and introduced a formidable predator, the dingo dingo (dĭng`gō), wild dog (Canis lupus dingo) of Australia, believed to have been introduced thousands of years ago from SE Asia by the aboriginal settlers of that continent; currently regarded as a subspecies of the gray wolf. , the native animal was driven to extinction everywhere except Tasmania. Then the misnamed mis·name tr.v. mis·named, mis·nam·ing, mis·names To call by a wrong name. misnamed Adjective having an inappropriate or misleading name: animal became marsupial marsupial (märs  `pēəl), member of the order Marsupialia, or pouched mammals. non grata The Tasmanian tiger was accused of being savage and hostile to sheep. A law was passed that mandated that the creature be eradicated and the Tasmanian tiger was wiped out in about 50 years. Today, 70 years after the death of the last specimen, people's fascination with the Tasmanian tiger lingers. Australians enthusiastically report "sightings." A team of scientists at the Australian Museum hopes to clone the animal from preserved DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. within me next decade. Owen documents the Tasmanian tiger from an evolutionary as well as a historical perspective to scrub away some of the mysticism surrounding the animal and shore up its legacy with facts. Johns Hopkins, 2004, 240 p., b&w Illus., hardcover, $25.00. |
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