Biology of Australia
Prior to the discovery of the Riversleigh deposits, the only well-known marsupial lion was from the Pleistocene, Thylacoleo carnifex, about the size of a modern leopard and distantly related to wombats. The mass of T. carnifex has been revised up to at least 100 kg (Wroe et al., 2003).
After some discussion about their diet, is has been agreed that they ate meat and probably bones. A study compared them to carnivores from around the world and the conclusion was that it was the most highly specialised mammalian meat-eater known to have evolved in the world, based on its huge, sectorial shearing premolar. Biomechanical studies of a model of the jaws of a small Thylacoleo, about half the size of a lioness, found that it produced almost as much biting power as an adult lioness, making it probably the most powerful bite for its size of any known mammalian carnivore. Experiments with a sheep's head (not a living sheep) found that although the incisors appeared more chisel-like than other predators, they actually pushed the neck of the sheep back between the highly specialised shearing premolars. It also had powerful retractable claws, especially on the thumbs, that were very large and powerful. There is disagreement as to how it used these fearsome thumb weapons, some favouring the suggestion that they were used for slashing the prey, others preferring the suggestion that they were used like grappling hooks, firmly locking on to the prey. They appear to have looked similar to a stretched out wombat, to which they are related, but they were no cuddly fur ball. To the first Aborigines, who almost certainly encountered them when they arrived in Australia, they must have been a very dangerous animal.
Among the species known from non-Riversleigh sites are Preisileo pitikantensis, a cat-sized species from the Late Oligocene, dog sized species of Wakaleo from the Early Miocene, Wakaleo oldfieldi, and from the Middle Miocene, Wakaleo vanderleuri, and from the Late Miocene, Wakaleo alcootaensis. Some small-dog sized species of Thylacoleo are known from the Late Miocene, Thylacoleo hilli, and the leopard-sized Thylacoleo crassidentatus from the Pliocene. A complete skull of Wakaleo vanderleueri has been found in the Middle Miocene deposits at Bullock Creek in the Northern Territory.
- Priscileo
- P. pitikantensis - Upper Oligocene
- P. roskellyae - Middle Miocene
- Subfamily Wakaleoninae
- Wakaleo alcootaensis - Upper Miocene
- W. oldfieldi - Lower - Upper Miocene
- W. vanderleueri - Middle-Upper Miocene
- Subfamily Thylacoleoninae
- Thylacoleo carnifex - Pleistocene
- T. crassidentatus - Pliocene
- T. hilli - Pliocene
Depicted in Rock Art
In his book, Australian Mammal Extinctions, Chris Johnson refers to many paintings in Arnhem Land of animals that look very much like thylacines, and among them are some that are slightly different, with no stripes and a tufted tail, tail butts clearly demarcated from the body, with broad paws and limb proportions that are very similar to those of the marsupial lion. According to Murray & Chaloupka, the painting of one of these animals appears to be dead. They suggest it appears as though a dead animal may have been laid out for the artist.
See Riversleigh Marsupial Lions
Links
- The Age of the Megafauna
- Australian Beasts
- Queensland Marsupial lion
- Thylacoleo carnifex fossils
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Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion
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Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion
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Marsupial lion found in Aboriginal rock art
- Michael Archer, Suzanne J. Hand & Henk Godthelp, Australia's Lost World: Riversleigh, world heritage Site, Reed New Holland
- Chris Johnson, Australia's Mammal Extinctions, a 50,000 year history, Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Josephine Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, JB Publications, 2004
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