Rare Thylacine Head Mistaken for a Fox Sells for £62,600

With its googly eyes, bumpy forehead and awkward hint of a smile, the peculiar taxidermied fox head at an antiques market seemed amusing enough to be worth £50.

When its buyer later put it up for auction, they were astonished to see it sell for 1,000 times the original price.

The reason was that it wasn't a fox at all. The exceptionally rare head belonged to an extinct species.

The fox head that turned out to be a thylacine

"I collect weird and wonderful fox heads – good, bad, and the ugly – to show the differing qualities of taxidermy over the years and by different taxidermists," James Cranfield, a UK dealer in natural history curiosities, told ScienceAlert.

When a listing for a "19th-century fox head" appeared in Cranfield's daily auction alerts, its comical appearance initially drew him in. A closer inspection changed his mind.

"When I clicked on it and it opened up to a bigger picture, it was like a bolt of lightning to my brain and eyes that it wasn't a fox," said Cranfield.

"I immediately thought, 'that looks like a thylacine'."

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a carnivorous marsupial resembling a large dog. Often called the Tasmanian tiger because of the stripes across its back, it was once found widely throughout Australia and as far north as New Guinea.

By the arrival of European settlers, however, the thylacine was restricted to Tasmania. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was regarded as a threat to livestock and actively hunted. The Tasmanian government even paid bounties for the animals.

The decision was eventually reversed and protections introduced, but they came too late. On 7 September 1936, the last known thylacine died in a Tasmanian zoo.

Almost exactly 90 years later, one has surfaced on the other side of the world.

Although the head had passed for a fox, Cranfield spotted signs of its real identity. The strongest evidence lay in its teeth: foxes and related animals have six upper incisors, the large front teeth between the fang-like canines. This specimen has eight, as did the thylacine.

Unfortunately for Cranfield, a second collector also suspected what the animal really was. A frantic bidding contest ended with a final price of £62,600 (over US$85,000).

To check that he had not spent an eye-watering sum on an ordinary fox, Cranfield had the head examined using X-rays and CT scans.

"The news could not have been better," Cranfield explained. "Not only is it a genuine thylacine head, the X-rays have revealed the most perfect, pristine skull within the mount."

"I'm very pleased that now that I haven't got egg on my face for spending [so much] on a fox head. I could have never shown my face in the community or online or anywhere," he laughed.

"I would have had to have become a hermit."

Experts concur, and the specimen has now been formally recorded in the International Thylacine Specimen Database (ITSD).

"I have examined and analysed the radiographs of the specimen, with particular attention to the skull and dentition," Stephen Sleightholme, project director of the ITSD, told ScienceAlert.

"The radiographic evidence provides clear diagnostic support for its identification as a thylacine."

It is only the second known taxidermy-mounted thylacine head. The other is in the private collection of Dr Eric Guiler, a University of Tasmania zoologist who led several expeditions in search of living wild thylacines in the decades after the last captive animal died.

"The ITSD currently contains more than 800 known specimens, encompassing a remarkably diverse range of material, including skulls, skeletons, alcohol-preserved organs, taxidermy mounts, microscopy slides, skins, and alcohol-preserved pups and adults," said Sleightholme.

What the thylacine head could reveal

Despite its age and less-than-perfect preservation, the head could shed light on the shape of the animal's head, skull and teeth. If DNA can be sampled, it might also reveal more about thylacine genetics.

The teeth offer the most promising and least intrusive sampling site, and Cranfield is already speaking to scientists in Australia about taking samples.

"We could easily do this as we have been sampling thylacine teeth using a Dremel drill for some time," Brandon Menzies, a bioscientist at the University of Melbourne, told ScienceAlert.

"You just take about 100 milligrams of bone powder."

Menzies works at the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab, which is headed by geneticist Andrew Pask. Its researchers have been assembling the thylacine genome and investigating the animal's biology, with the ultimate ambition of reversing its extinction.

The thylacine is among several species selected for de-extinction by the US bioscience company Colossal, alongside other extinct icons such as the woolly mammoth and the dodo. Whether de-extinction is feasible or ethical, however, remains contested.

That places considerable pressure on the little head, but even if DNA is collected, it is unlikely to transform the de-extinction project. Menzies says it could, at most, broaden knowledge of the species' genetic diversity.

Further analysis might also answer a particularly intriguing question about the specimen itself. It appears to be well over a century old, so where has it been all that time?

"The fact that this specimen appears to have remained unrecognised and outside established scientific collections is itself significant," said Sleightholme.

"In the case of an extinct species, every surviving specimen constitutes a finite and potentially irreplaceable source of biological information."

Its original provenance is also unknown. Cranfield speculates that it could have been a hunting trophy, perhaps submitted under the Tasmanian government's bounty programme.

"There were roughly 2,186 specimens killed and presented during the bounty from 1888 to 1912," said Menzies.

"We don't know where they all went. Many remains were simply destroyed by the government after bounty payment."

Another unanswered question is how the head made its way to the UK. It could have been sold as an antique or brought over in someone's collection.

There is a more intriguing possibility, though: it may have arrived in the UK on the shoulders of a living thylacine.

In the early 20th century, the animals were known to have been exported and exhibited in zoos around the world, including in London. Cranfield says the individual whose head was mounted may have lived abroad for a while, with the mount prepared locally after its death.

To investigate, Cranfield hopes to ask specialists to analyse the wood in the shield.

"If we can test what that wood is and what the shield is made of, if it turns out that it's some species that's endemic to Australia, that will then go with my hypothesis that the mount was created in Australia, and at some point in its history it came over to the UK," Cranfield said.

"If it shows that the wood used to create the mount was English, that's then a different avenue that we go down and go okay, well it was prepared here."

Whether that produces a useful answer or not, it is only one of many possible tests. Isotopic analysis, for example, could establish the specimen's age.

Cranfield is happy to give scientists access to study the head in different ways, provided the work is credible and non-destructive.

Preserving the thylacine's unusual appearance

As for those comical googly eyes, Cranfield initially considered replacing them with more realistic ones. He also thought about correcting the overstuffed forehead, which gives the head the wrong shape, but says he would prefer to keep it as a curiosity.

"As somebody who is interested in historical taxidermy, my plans are not to do that much to it," he explained. "It's like trying to put make-up on a mummy. It's still going to be not looking great."

Such pieces reflect the techniques, ideas and understanding of their era, and that history is worth documenting as well.

"Although it looks strange, preservation and taxidermy do strange things to specimens, and the taxidermist would often make the heads and faces more fearsome or action-packed," Menzies explained.

And how could anyone look at that face and say it isn't good enough? Cranfield thinks its particular awkward charm could appeal to fans of 'bad taxidermy', putting it alongside examples such as Melbourne Museum's Sad Otter and the Lion of Gripsholm Castle.

"That doesn't look anything like a lion – but what would be the benefit of soaking that specimen down and remounting it? You would then be losing a sort of cultural artefact," Cranfield said.

"Those sorts of peculiar specimens become firm favourites of visitors to museums."

As for which museum might be fortunate enough to acquire a new unofficial mascot, Cranfield says he is discussing a possible public display with several institutions.

Wherever the thylacine head eventually goes, this beautiful creature is at last returning to the limelight.

"For too long, it has been forgotten and in obscurity as a novelty fox head," said Cranfield.

"It now needs to be shone a light on with the respect that it deserves."

This article was fact-checked by Rachel Garner and edited by Clare Watson. We take pride in our process, but we are only human. If you notice an error, please let us know.