International Thylacine Specimen Database
Encyclopedia
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
all known surviving specimen
Specimen
A specimen is a portion/quantity of material for use in testing, examination, or study.BiologyA laboratory specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, a plant, part of a plant, or a microorganism, used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or...
material of the Thylacine
Thylacine
The thylacine or ,also ;binomial name: Thylacinus cynocephalus, Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf...
(Thylacinus cynocephalus) (or Tasmanian tiger) held within museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
, university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, and private collections.
“Certainly in my experience this is by far the most thorough compilation focused on an extinct or endangered animal ever produced and, as such, bound to be enormously useful to many generations of scientists to come.” Prof. Mike Archer, Dean of Science - University of New South Wales.
The ITSD was first published as an electronic resource on a series of three CD-ROM’s in April 2005. It was updated in July 2006 and completely revised in May 2009 and released on a single DVD totalling some 3.68 GB of data and images
The ITSD has been designed as a free access academic tool to promote and facilitate undergraduate and postgraduate research into the species. It can be accessed through the offices of the curators and heads of department of the universities and museums that hold thylacine material or alternatively through the libraries of several of the major zoological societies.
The ITSD lists all available catalogue data for each individual specimen e.g. holding institution, catalogue identification number, sex, date of acquisition, specimen type, source, locality, collector, field number, old or additional catalogue numbers, purchase or exchange information and finally any additional remarks pertaining to the specimen.
To support the data component and to significantly enhance its educational worth, high-resolution digital images of the specimens are included. The ITSD specimen image bank forms the largest single photographic resource of its kind anywhere in the world. The primary justification for including digital images was to:
1. Give researchers remote visual access to thylacine specimen material and to the accompanying data thus encouraging and promoting continued research into the species.
2. Conserve source specimen material from excessive handling hence directly contributing to its long-term conservation.
3. Assist with the security of source material in that a photographic record exists for all specimens within the database.
4. Preserve digital images of the specimens in their current state of preservation.
“The data sets within the ITSD are supported by an image bank of around 2000 high-resolution digital photographs of the specimens themselves. All biological material deteriorates over time and these unique digital images will act as a permanent record of the specimens for future generations in their present state of preservation”.
Nicholas Ayliffe
Principal Photographer to the ITSD Project
Specimen material within the ITSD comprises skin
Skin
-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...
s, skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
s, skull
Skull
The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...
s, taxidermy
Taxidermy
Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
mounts and wet specimens. Wet specimens are whole animals, organs
Organ (anatomy)
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function. Usually there is a main tissue and sporadic tissues . The main tissue is the one that is unique for the specific organ. For example, main tissue in the heart is the myocardium, while sporadic are...
or body parts that have been preserved in either alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
or formalin. Specimens of the Thylacine are spread extensively around the globe so the search to locate these specimens was from the outset an international search involving a total of 106 museum, university and private collections in 23 countries.
“The International Thylacine Specimen Database is a unique and precise database of the largest modern day marsupial carnivore. I am confident that all researchers will appreciate both its complexity and accuracy as a research tool. It is a wonderful resource and an extremely valuable part of Australia’s natural heritage.”
Prof. Dr. Heinz F. Moeller
Former Director of the Zoological Museum & Department of Comparative Morphology of Vertebrates, Heidelberg University.
Author of “Der Beutelwolf”
The master copy of the ITSD is held at the Zoological Society in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with mirror copies held within the University of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
in Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, the Australian National Wildlife Collection
Australian National Wildlife Collection
The Australian National Wildlife Collection is a collection of almost 200,000 zoological specimens, including skeletons, skins, spirit specimens, birds’ eggs, frozen tissue samples and a wildlife sound library, mainly of vertebrate animals from Australia and Papua New Guinea, which are stored in a...
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is a museum located in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Established in 1891, the Queen Victoria has a strong reputation for its excellent collection, which includes fine exhibitions of colonial art, contemporary craft and design, Tasmanian history and...
in Launceston
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
. The master and mirror copies are kept constantly revised and updated as new information comes to light. The Zoological Society was chosen to hold the master copy of the ITSD because of its historic association with the Thylacine. The bulk of the early scientific papers on the species were published within its "Proceedings" and the society's zoo in Regent's Park
Regent's Park
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
exhibited more Thylacines than any other zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
outside Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Each year the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1879 as the New South Wales Zoological Society. A Royal Charter was granted in September, 1908, leading to a change to the current name on 10 February 1909...
hosts the Whitley Awards
Whitley Awards (Australia)
The Whitley Awards have been awarded annually since 1979 by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales . They commemorate Gilbert Whitley, an eminent Australian ichthyologist, and are presented for outstanding publications, either printed or electronic, that contain new information about the...
. These awards are a tribute to Gilbert Whitley, the eminent Australian ichthyologist and are presented for outstanding publications that contain a significant amount of new information relating to the fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
of the Australasian region. In September 2005 the International Thylacine Specimen Database was awarded the Whitley Award for the best zoological database. This was the first time in the history of the awards that a Whitley citation had been presented for a database.