An item that was originally believed to be an antique taxidermy fox has sold at auction for £60,000 after being identified as the mounted head of an extinct animal.

It was first bought for just £50 at an antiques market before it was later discovered to be a rare thylacine, a creature sometimes referred to as a Tasmanian Tiger.

The specimen is one of only 101 known taxidermy examples of the thylacine and attracted plenty of attention when it went under the hammer at Auctioneum, in Bristol.

"Bids quickly jumped into the tens of thousands, and simply kept on going up. The room went silent, everyone crowded in to watch. It was an amazing moment to witness," said auctioneer Andrew Stowe.

The thylacine was a carnivorous marsupial with dog-like traits that was native to New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania.

Most died out about 2,000 years ago but a population continued on Tasmania into the 20th Century before hunting, disease and habitat destruction drove it to extinction.

The last known individual died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

Taxidermy, pelts, bones and other items from the thylacine are now a top prize for zoologists, scientists and collectors and complete mounted heads are rare outside of major museums and scientific institutions.

"It was quite a shock to discover we were sitting on something so special," said Stowe.

"The vendor had purchased it simply because the novelty googly eyes attached to it made them laugh.

"When we broke the news that it was actually a thylacine, they were in complete shock.

"Even replicas of skulls or bones sell for thousands of pounds [so] to find a complete item like this, is almost unheard of, especially here in the UK," he added

Cranfield said he planned to ensure that the head would be available to the academic and scientific community.

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