Editing Thylacine (section)

==Distribution and habitat==
The thylacine most likely preferred the [[Flora of Australia|dry eucalyptus forests, wetlands, and grasslands]] of [[Australia (continent)|mainland Australia]].<ref name="tasparks" /> Indigenous Australian rock paintings indicate that the thylacine lived throughout mainland Australia and [[New Guinea]]. Proof of the animal's existence in mainland Australia came from a [[desiccated]] carcass that was discovered in a cave in the [[Nullarbor Plain]] in Western Australia in 1990; [[carbon dating]] revealed it to be around 3,300 years old.<ref name="nma">{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/about/media/media-releases-listing-by-year/2004/mummified-thylacine-has-national-message |title=Mummified thylacine has national message |publisher=National Museum of Australia, Canberra|date=16 June 2004|access-date=15 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110112250/http://www.nma.gov.au/media/media_releases_by_year/2004/2004_06_16|archive-date=10 November 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> Recently examined fossilised footprints also suggest historical distribution of the species on [[Kangaroo Island]].<ref>Fedorowytsch, T. 2017. [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-23/kangaroo-island-fossil-footprints-reveal-ancient-wildlife/8735572 Fossil footprints reveal Kangaroo Island's diverse ancient wildlife]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724074546/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-23/kangaroo-island-fossil-footprints-reveal-ancient-wildlife/8735572|date=24 July 2017}}. [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] Net News. Retrieved on 24 July 2017.</ref> The northernmost record of the species is from the Kiowa rock shelter in [[Chimbu Province]] in the [[New Guinea Highlands|highlands]] of [[Papua New Guinea]], dating to the Early Holocene, around 10,000–8,500 years [[Before Present]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gaffney|first1=Dylan|last2=Summerhayes|first2=Glenn R.|last3=Luu|first3=Sindy|last4=Menzies |first4=James|last5=Douglass |first5=Kristina|last6=Spitzer|first6=Megan|last7=Bulmer|first7=Susan |date=February 2021|title=Small game hunting in montane rainforests: Specialised capture and broad spectrum foraging in the Late Pleistocene to Holocene New Guinea Highlands|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=253|at=106742|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106742|bibcode=2021QSRv..25306742G|s2cid=234011303 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379120307046}}</ref> In 2017, White, Mitchell and Austin published a large-scale analysis of thylacine mitochondrial genomes, showing that they had split into eastern and western populations on the mainland prior to the [[Last Glacial Maximum]] and that Tasmanian thylacines had a low genetic diversity by the time of European arrival.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Lauren C. |last2=Mitchell |first2=Kieren J. |last3=Austin |first3=Jeremy J. |year=2018 |title=Ancient mitochondrial genomes reveal the demographic history and phylogeography of the extinct, enigmatic thylacine (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') |journal=Journal of Biogeography |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1111/jbi.13101 |bibcode=2018JBiog..45....1W |issn=1365-2699 |s2cid=91011378}}</ref>

In Tasmania, they preferred the woodlands of the midlands and coastal [[heath]], which eventually became the primary focus of British settlers seeking grazing land for their livestock.<ref name="AML">{{cite web|url= http://amonline.net.au/thylacine/04.htm|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090602010849/http://amonline.net.au/thylacine/04.htm|archive-date=2 June 2009|title=Australia's Thylacine: Where did the Thylacine live?|publisher=Australian Museum|year=1999| access-date =21 November 2006}}</ref> The striped pattern may have provided camouflage in woodland conditions,<ref name="ABRS" /> but it may have also served for identification purposes.<ref name="P4243">[[#Paddle|Paddle (2000)]], pp. 42–43.</ref> The species had a typical home range of between {{cvt|40|and|80|km2}}.<ref name="UTAS" /> It appears to have kept to its home range without being territorial; groups too large to be a family unit were sometimes observed together.<ref name="P3839">[[#Paddle|Paddle (2000)]], pp. 38–39.</ref>