Tasmanian tiger's jaws were too weak to kill sheep

At the end of the 19th Century, the thylacine had a price on its head.

The strange marsupial carnivore, which became extinct in 1936, was thought to kill sheep. Sheep farming was the backbone of the Australian economy, and the government duly set up a bounty scheme to exterminate the species.

But a new study has now revealed that the marsupial carnivore's jaws were too weak to snare a struggling adult sheep.

The findings are reported in the Journal of Zoology.

As well as revealing the injustice of its being hunted, the study also suggests that the animal's diet contributed significantly to its demise....