Gold Half Gram 2022 Extinct Predators - Thylacoleo Carnifex, Coin from Senegal - detailed information

Senegal uses the West African CFA Franc as its circulation currency, together with seven other states in West Africa which make up the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA; Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger and Togo. The currency is issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO; Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest), and - unlike for example the Euro - its coins are not marked with an individual country of issue.

Some of the member countries however issue non-circulating collector and commemorative coinage, which Senegal has been doing since 1968. Some of these coins are in the internationally popular half gram (0.5g) of gold mini-coin collector format - such as this one.

This coin is part of the the Extinct Predators Series, and is dedicated to Thylacoleo Carnifex - the "marsupial lion". It is a "companion coin" to the silver ounce with a similar design which was issued for Congo.

Thylacoleo was a carnivorous marsupial that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene (2 million to 46 thousand years ago). Some of these marsupial lions were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of their time, approaching the weight of a lioness. The estimated average weight ranges from 101 to 130 kg. Thylacoleo was 75 cm at the shoulder and about 150 cm long from head to tail.

Pound for pound, Thylacoleo carnifex had the strongest bite of any mammal species, living or extinct; one weighing 101 kg had a bite comparable to that of a 250 kg African lion, and research suggests that it could hunt and take prey much larger than itself. Larger animals that were likely prey include Diprotodon and giant kangaroos. It also had extremely strong fore limbs, with retractable, cat-like claws, a trait previously unseen in marsupials. Thylacoleo also possessed enormous hooked claws set on large semi-opposable thumbs, which were used to capture and disembowel prey.

Its strong forelimbs, retracting claws, and incredibly powerful jaws mean that Thylacoleo possibly climbed trees and perhaps carried carcasses to keep the kill for itself (similar to the leopard today).