alsih2o
First Post
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/25/1053801277479.html
A new horned kangaroo, giant marsupial lions, birds and a wolf-sized Tasmanian tiger are just some of the latest cache of fossils unearthed in caves on the Nullarbor Plain.
The superbly preserved specimens were collected by a Western Australia Museum team of palaeontologists and cavers who were washed out of the area by rains a week ago.
The expedition leader, John Long, who visited the site last year, said this trip had yielded animals new to science.
"This time the focus was on finding some of the rarer things, such as complete skulls of these strange kangaroos.
"Last year we found mostly juvenile specimens. Now we have bigger ones, and probably three more species of kangaroos."
Two more fossil specimens of thylacoleo, Australia's biggest mammalian predator, were unearthed, adding to the eight skeletons identified last year.
The lion-like predator, which could stand nearly a metre and weighed about 250 kilograms, had a pair of retractable thumb-like claws to disembowel or drag prey up trees. But a reconstruction of one of its feet has revealed for the first time that all of the lion's digits were retractable, not just the thumbs.
More skeletal material of the world's biggest kangaroo, Procoptodon goliah, was found with the remains of bandicoots and birds.
No human remains were found on either trip to the caves, which were at least 200,000 - possibly 500,000 - years old.
Dr Long said the prize of the Nullarbor fossil specimens included a horned kangaroo: "It is an adult specimen with a very peculiar bulbous nose."
A new horned kangaroo, giant marsupial lions, birds and a wolf-sized Tasmanian tiger are just some of the latest cache of fossils unearthed in caves on the Nullarbor Plain.
The superbly preserved specimens were collected by a Western Australia Museum team of palaeontologists and cavers who were washed out of the area by rains a week ago.
The expedition leader, John Long, who visited the site last year, said this trip had yielded animals new to science.
"This time the focus was on finding some of the rarer things, such as complete skulls of these strange kangaroos.
"Last year we found mostly juvenile specimens. Now we have bigger ones, and probably three more species of kangaroos."
Two more fossil specimens of thylacoleo, Australia's biggest mammalian predator, were unearthed, adding to the eight skeletons identified last year.
The lion-like predator, which could stand nearly a metre and weighed about 250 kilograms, had a pair of retractable thumb-like claws to disembowel or drag prey up trees. But a reconstruction of one of its feet has revealed for the first time that all of the lion's digits were retractable, not just the thumbs.
More skeletal material of the world's biggest kangaroo, Procoptodon goliah, was found with the remains of bandicoots and birds.
No human remains were found on either trip to the caves, which were at least 200,000 - possibly 500,000 - years old.
Dr Long said the prize of the Nullarbor fossil specimens included a horned kangaroo: "It is an adult specimen with a very peculiar bulbous nose."
I wasn't even aware of that story. Thanks!
