Data from: Reconstruction of the cortical maps of the Tasmanian tiger and comparison to the Tasmanian devil

The last known Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus)–aka the thylacine–died in 1936. Because its natural behavior was never scientifically documented, we are left to infer aspects of its behavior from museum specimens and historical recollections of bushmen. Recent advances in brain imaging have made it possible to scan postmortem specimens of a wide range of animals, even more than a decade old. Any thylacine brain, however, would be more than 100 years old. Here, we show that it is possible to reconstruct white matter tracts in two thylacine brains. For functional interpretation, we compare to the white matter reconstructions of the brains of two Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). We reconstructed the cortical projection zones of the basal ganglia and major thalamic nuclei. The basal ganglia reconstruction showed a more modularized pattern in the cortex of the thylacine, while the devil cortex was dominated by the putamen. Similarly, the thalamic projections had a more orderly topography in the thylacine than the devil. These results are consistent with theories of brain evolution suggesting that larger brains are more modularized. Functionally, the thylacine’s brain may have had relatively more cortex devoted to planning and decision-making, which would be consistent with a predatory ecological niche versus the scavenging niche of the devil.最后一只已知的塔斯马尼亚虎（Thylacinus cynocephalus，又名袋狼）于1936年离世。由于其野外行为从未得到科学记录，我们仅能借助博物馆标本与丛林原住民的历史回忆，对其行为特征进行推断。近年来脑成像技术的进步使得对多种动物的死后标本进行扫描成为可能，即便这些标本已留存超过十年。但袋狼的脑标本均已留存超百年。本研究证实，可对两份袋狼脑组织的白质纤维束进行重建。为开展功能层面的解读，我们将其与两只袋獾（Sarcophilus harrisii）的脑白质重建结果进行了对比。我们重建了基底神经节以及主要丘脑核团的皮层投射区域。袋狼的基底神经节皮层呈现出更为模块化的分布模式，而袋獾的皮层则以壳核为主要构成。同理，袋狼的丘脑投射具有比袋獾更为规整的拓扑结构。上述结果与脑进化理论相符，该理论指出脑容量更大的物种其脑结构更具模块化特征。从功能层面来看，袋狼的大脑皮层可能拥有更多用于规划与决策的区域，这与其作为捕食者的生态位相契合，而袋獾则以食腐生态位为主。