The thylacine in the archaeological record Despite living alongside Aboriginal Australians for at least 65 000 years, the thylacine was almost non-existent in the archaeological record until the recent discovery of a section of jawbone smeared with red ochre at the Northern Territory site of Madjedbebe (Clarkson et al. 2015). This jawbone is the first and only example of a thylacine part being utilised to make something by Aboriginal Australians and therefore raises the question: Why have we not found any other examples of Aboriginal Australians making things out of thylacine materials (such as bones, teeth, or skins), when the animal itself is prominently displayed in rock art, as well as paintings showing thylacines being hunted? Although it is possible that the Madjedbebe artefact is a one-off experimentation with a piece of handy material, it is far more likely we are simply yet to find other examples of worked thylacine materials in the archaeological record.