Tyarrpecinus

Tyarrpecinus is an extinct genus of thylacinid that lived during the late Miocene in what is now the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known only from a partial skull bone that was reconstructed from numerous fragments. It was a small thylacinid and represents a late surviving relict. The genus is monotypic, containing only one species, Tyarrpecinus rothi.

==History and naming== Tyarrpecinus was named and described in 2000 based on fossil material recovered from the late Miocene Alcoota Local Fauna of the Waite Formation, Northern Territory. The holotype and only known specimen, NTM P98211, is a left maxillary fragment reassembled from a concentration of small bone and tooth fragments. It is thought that it represents the contents of a crocodile coprolite as the fragments exhibit signs of chemical erosion and have a layer of calcite on them. Fossils of Tyarrpecinus, as well as those of many other animals from Alcoota, were found in a dense bone bed that accumulated after a mass mortality event. The exact cause has been a subject of debate, with earlier studies suggesting that waterhole-tethering was the cause. However, more recently, it is thought that a flood was instead responsible.