Thylacines were officially declared extinct in 1982, with the last known Tasmanian tiger dying in captivity in Hobart in 1936.

According to the report from Nature Ecology and Evolution, DNA was extracted from the soft tissue of an 108-year-old, ethanol-preserved thylacine pup specimen, which was obtained from the Museums Victoria collection.

The pup was a female of around one month old, who was part of a litter of four young. They, alongside their mother, were collected dead in 1901.

According to the research, demographic analysis showed a long-term decline in genetic diversity in thylacines prior to the arrival of humans in Australia – more so than Tasmanian devils have been shown to have today.

Tasmanian devils have experienced population decline due to their extreme lack of genetic diversity.

“The population decline appears to have begun before the human colonisation of Australia and overlaps with the climate changes associated with the beginning of the penultimate glacial cycle,” the report said.

There has also been contention surrounding the phylogenetic position of the thylacine, with this study suggesting that the thylacine is actually more closely related to numbats than members of the Dasyuridae – the family that contains animals such as Tasmanian devils and quolls.

The report also shows that though the thylacine shares similarities and looks with dingoes and dogs, the Tasmanian tiger has a closer relation to the wallaby.