The remains of the last known Tasmanian tiger, thought lost for 85 years, have been discovered in an Australian museum’s cupboard.
In 1936, the thylacine died in captivity at Hobart Zoo, and its body was donated to a local museum.
But what happened to its skeleton and skin after that remained a mystery.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery lost track of the remains, which were thought to have been discarded.
According to new research, they were always at the museum, preserved but not properly catalogued.
“For years, many museum curators and researchers searched for its remains without success, as no thylacine material dating from 1936 had been recorded,” said Robert Paddle, who published a book in 2000 on the extinction of the species.
“It was assumed its body had been discarded.”
But he and one of the museum’s curators found an unpublished taxidermist’s report, prompting a review of the museum’s collections.
They found the missing female specimen in a cupboard in the museum’s education department.
It had been taken around Australia as a travelling exhibit but staff were unaware it was the last thylacine, curator Kathryn Medlock told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It was chosen because it was the best skin in the collection,” she said.
“At that time they thought there were still animals out in the bush.”
The skin and skeleton are now on display at the museum in Hobart.
Originally believed to have roamed across Australia, Tasmanian tiger populations declined because of impacts from humans and dingoes.
Eventually the marsupial was only found on the island of Tasmania, where it was ultimately hunted to extinction.