A cikin 1807, masanin ilimin halitta George Harris ya rubuta bayanin farko na Tasmanian shaidan a cikin 1807, yana mai suna Didelphis ursina, saboda halayen bearlike kamar kunne mai zagaye. Ya riga ya gabatar da wani gabatarwa a kan batun a Zoological Society of London. Duk da haka, wannan sunan binomial na musamman an ba shi wombat na yau da kullun (daga baya aka sake rarraba shi a matsayin Vombatus ursinus) ta George Shaw a 1800, kuma saboda haka ba shi da shi. A cikin 1838, an ba da samfurin Dasyurus lanicylus da Richard Owen, amma a 1877 ya mayar da shi zuwa Sarcophilus lanicylus. Masanin ilimin halitta na zamani mai suna Sarcophilus harr ("Harris's flesh-lover") da masanin Faransanci Pierre Boitard ya rubuta a cikin 1841.
Sarcophilus harrisii