It came at the end of a press conference for scientists announcing the news they had solved a mystery surrounding the last ever thylacine.
Researcher Robert Paddle and museum curator of vertebrate zoology Kathryn Medlock said on Monday they had managed to track down the remains of the final thylacine to die in captivity — which had been thought lost.
Speaking to reporters at the Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), Dr Paddle credited Dr Medlock for her work in examining archival records including the "taxidermist annual reports", deducing the remains had erroneously been entered into the museum's "education collection" rather than the "zoological collection" following its death in 1936.
They had worked out the remains had been used as a touring science exhibit — with its skin showing the flattened areas where schoolchildren had been allowed to pat it — until it was stored in a cupboard at the museum until the 1980s, before being moved to more suitable accommodation at another TMAG site.
Their detective work had identified that set of remains as being the skin and skeleton of the last-ever Tasmanian tiger — and it is there the press conference probably would have ended, but for another question from a reporter who asked Dr Paddle about "Benjamin", the name which often accompanies stories, videos and online discussion about the last thylacine.
With a laugh, then an exhalation of breath, Dr Paddle launched into something which, by the tone of his voice, had clearly caused him some exasperation.
"In May 1968, an individual approached Graham Pizzey, the Victorian naturalist, and said 'I'm the last curator at Hobart's zoo'," he said.
"He tells this fantastic story of the last specimen thylacine being male and called Benjamin, of it being tame, of it being fed live rabbits."
The individual Dr Paddle is referring to is Frank Darby, whose story — referring the the last thylacine as "Benjamin" — was published in the Melbourne press in 1968, but didn't filter down to Tasmania "until the 1980s".
"Suddenly there was an explosion of 'Benjamin', not just in newspaper articles, but in video tapes, DVDs, poems," Dr Paddle said.
Dr Paddle said once Darby's stories of "Benjamin" being "fed live animals" for show reached Tasmania, local reporters tracked down Alison Reid, whose father ran the zoo until his death in 1935, and who worked there herself.
Ms Reid told reporters in no uncertain terms that "nobody called Frank Darby was ever a keeper of animals at Hobart's zoo", Dr Paddle said.
"She also took incredible offence at the idea that her father and herself were feeding live prey to their carnivores as a public exhibition," he said.
Dr Paddle said Frank Darby "exposed himself as knowing nothing about the species" when he asserted it was "mute, voiceless".
"This was a myth created by the farmers and bookies in the 1920s, when everybody was saying [thylacines] were out there destroying the sheep industry and the reason you can't find them is they don't make a sound," he said.
Myth persists
Despite the Darby story being debunked semi-regularly, the "Benjamin" story has persisted, to the annoyance of Dr Paddle.
"It was a female and it certainly was not called Benjamin. It is an unfortunate myth [created by] a bulls*** artist of the first degree.
"What he said is tragic [and] it is time to remove it from the literature."
With popular webpages still referring to "Benjamin" — including the National Museum of Australia, Wikipedia, the New York Post, the Times UK, the Smithsonian and Australian Geographic — it would seem there is still a way to go before Dr Paddle's wish is fulfilled.
