Could direct killing by larger dingoes have caused the extinction of the thylacine from mainland Australia?

ABSTRACT: Invasive predators can impose strong selection pressure on species that evolved in their absence and drive species to extinction. Interactions between coexisting predators may be particularly strong, as larger predators frequently kill smaller predators and suppress their abundances. Until 3500 years ago the marsupial thylacine was Australia's largest predator. It became extinct from the mainland soon after the arrival of a morphologically convergent placental predator, the dingo, but persisted in the absence of dingoes on the island of Tasmania until the 20th century. As Tasmanian thylacines were larger than dingoes, it has been argued that dingoes were unlikely to have caused the extinction of mainland thylacines because larger predators are rarely killed by smaller predators. By compari

SUBMITTER: Letnic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3342279 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature