Quantitative volumetrics of the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) and Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) brain.
Description
The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) and Tasmanian tiger (Thylacine sp.) are two of Australasia’s most iconic carnivorous marsupials, the latter of which became extinct during the early part of the last century. While both species were carnivorous, comparative studies have suggested that the Thylacine was likely more predatory than the extant Tasmanian devil and had expanded their cognitive machinery to support hunting behavior as evidenced from an expansion of their encephalization quotients and caudate nuclei volumes. To examine this further, the following study sought to quantitively compare the subcomponents of the cortical surface in MRI brain scan data obtained from the Tasmanian devil and Thylacine. Using MRI scan data obtained from postmortem specimens (2 Tasmanian tigers, 1 Thylacine), we derived white and gray matter volumes and associated 3- dimensional reconstructions using segmentation approaches as well as cortical thickness maps for each species from which to identify putative regions of increased cortical processing. The results or this preliminary analysis revealed that despite a slight increase in encephalization, the Thylacine white and grey matter components are largely comparable (in terms of volume) to that of the Tasmanian devil. In conclusion, this study supports observations that cortical white matter volume and proportionally is largely governed by the scaling relationship with overall brain size and that the extinct Thylacine exhibited similar proportionality to that of closely related extant marsupials.
Citation Information
Esmail, Nada and Spocter, Muhammad A., "Quantitative volumetrics of the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) and Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) brain." (2026). Office of Research DMU Research Symposium. 98.
https://digitalcommons.dmu.edu/researchsymposium/2025rs/2025abstracts/98
Quantitative volumetrics of the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) and Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) brain.
The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) and Tasmanian tiger (Thylacine sp.) are two of Australasia’s most iconic carnivorous marsupials, the latter of which became extinct during the early part of the last century. While both species were carnivorous, comparative studies have suggested that the Thylacine was likely more predatory than the extant Tasmanian devil and had expanded their cognitive machinery to support hunting behavior as evidenced from an expansion of their encephalization quotients and caudate nuclei volumes. To examine this further, the following study sought to quantitively compare the subcomponents of the cortical surface in MRI brain scan data obtained from the Tasmanian devil and Thylacine. Using MRI scan data obtained from postmortem specimens (2 Tasmanian tigers, 1 Thylacine), we derived white and gray matter volumes and associated 3- dimensional reconstructions using segmentation approaches as well as cortical thickness maps for each species from which to identify putative regions of increased cortical processing. The results or this preliminary analysis revealed that despite a slight increase in encephalization, the Thylacine white and grey matter components are largely comparable (in terms of volume) to that of the Tasmanian devil. In conclusion, this study supports observations that cortical white matter volume and proportionally is largely governed by the scaling relationship with overall brain size and that the extinct Thylacine exhibited similar proportionality to that of closely related extant marsupials.
