Thaindian News

July 19, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Researchers have discovered the fossils of 15-million-year-old prehistoric marsupials in a cave in the Outback. This discovery is a rare one and the fossils found there are surprisingly similar like the modern day koalas and the kangaroos.

The huge treasure of fossils in the cave includes 26 skulls of an extinct and wombat-like marsupial called Nimbadon lavarackorum, which is a strange sheep-sized creature with huge claws. The Journal of ‘Vertebrate Paleontology’ of this week has the description of the findings.

The co-author of the article, Mike Archer, who is also a paleontologist of the University of New South Wales, said, “The discovery is extremely exciting for us. It has given us a good source for knowing the past of Australia as we did not any clue before. This gives an additional insight into these peculiar animals about which we have possibly never thought of.”

Since 1990, the digging has been going on at the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil field site in northwest Queensland State and they found the first of the Nimbadon skulls in 1993.

The well preserved condition has surprised the scientists, who are very amazed to discover so many of them.

The lead researcher paleontologist Karen Black said that the discovery of such a large cluster indicates that these animals might have travelled in groups like the kangaroos of modern days. However, it is still a mystery, how these animals ended up here.

According to one theory, it is assumed that the herd might have got plunged into the cave accidentally through an opening hidden by vegetation. They might have been killed by the fall or might have got trapped and died later.

Some of the skulls were of baby creatures, which were still in the pouches of their mothers. A study of the skulls suggests that the development of their bones at the front of the face might have taken place quickly thus leading the babies to suckle at a very young age.

These are almost similar to the kangaroos of today as these modern day babies are also born after a month’s gestation. For the rest of the development, they crawled back into the pouch of their mothers.

Liz Reed, a paleontologist of Flinders University in South Australia, said, “This discovery is very significant. We may be able to say something about the growth and behavior of a bunch of creatures, which we would not have been able to state earlier.”