UK collector pays £85,000 for rare thylacine skull misidentified as fox head
A British antique dealer spent £85,000 at a Bristol auction on a taxidermied head that was later confirmed to be a thylacine, not a fox.
An anonymous seller purchased a quirky taxidermied head at a county fair for about $67, later listing it on an online auction site where James Cranfield, a natural-history relics dealer, spotted it. Believing it to be a fox, Cranfield attended the Auctioneum in Bristol and, after a competitive bidding war, secured the piece for £85,000 plus fees. Detailed examination, including X-ray and CT scans, showed the skull possessed eight upper incisors and other traits of a thylacine, the extinct Tasmanian Tiger.
Auctioneum’s Andrew Stowe called the discovery “unbelievably rare,” noting that complete thylacine heads are virtually unknown, with only one other documented specimen. The International Thylacine Specimen Database lists around 815 thylacine items, but full mounts are exceedingly scarce. Cranfield intends to keep the mount for educational purposes and hopes scientists will study it to gain further insight into the species.
Why it matters
The find provides a rare, scientifically valuable thylacine specimen that could deepen understanding of an extinct species.
In this story
