The thylacine (, or ,) (Thylacinus cynocephalus) is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known animal died on 7 September 1936, in Tasmania. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped lower back) or the Tasmanian wolf (because of its canid-like characteristics). Various different Aboriginal Tasmanian names have been recorded. The thylacine was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size canid, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to that of a kangaroo. It displayed dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back and could open its jaws to an unusual extent. The thylacine was an apex predator, though exactly how large its prey animals could be is disputed. Its closest living relatives are the other members of Dasyuromorphia, including the Tasmanian devil and quolls. The thylacine had a pouch in both sexes, the females was used for rearing young and the males served as a protective sheath, covering the external reproductive organs. The thylacine had died out on both New Guinea and the Australian mainland before British settlement of the continent, but its last stronghold was on the island of Tasmania. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributing factors were disease, the introduction of and competition with dingoes, human encroachment into its habitat and climate change. Taxonomic and evolutionary history Numerous examples of thylacine engravings and rock art have been found, dating back to at least 1000 BC. Petroglyph images of the thylacine can be found at the Dampier Rock Art Precinct, on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia. By the time the first European explorers arrived, the animal was already extinct in mainland Australia and New Guinea, and rare in Tasmania. Europeans may have encountered it in Tasmania as far back as 1642, when Abel Tasman first arrived in Tasmania. His shore party reported seeing the footprints of "wild beasts having claws like a Tyger". Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, arriving with the Mascarin in 1772, reported seeing a "tiger cat". The first definitive encounter was by French explorers on 13 May 1792, as noted by the naturalist Jacques Labillardière, in his journal from the expedition led by d'Entrecasteaux. In 1805, William Paterson, the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, sent a detailed description for publication