Thursday 16 January 2014

Marsupial Extinctions: Don't Blame the Dingoes (Op-Ed)

By Christopher Johnson Barry W. Brook, Corey Bradshaw, and Thomas Prowse | January 14, 2014 

This article was originally published at The Conversation.The publication contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The humble dingo has become something of a scapegoat since its arrival in Australia just 4000 years ago. It is widely blamed for the disappearance of thylacines (also known as Tasmanian tigers) and devils from the mainland - an event that left Tasmania as their sole refuge.

The hypothesis is that when dingoes spread through the mainland, they were smarter, faster and more versatile predators than their marsupial counterparts, who lost the battle for survival.

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