Two million years ago bizarre creatures roamed the Australian continent - the flesh-eating giant rat-kangaroo, the thunder bird, the marsupial wolf, and a giant monitor lizard
Extinct Australian "Lion" Was Big Biter, Expert Says National Geographic
Two million years ago bizarre creatures roamed the Australian continent -
the flesh-eating giant rat-kangaroo, the thunder bird, the marsupial wolf,
and a giant monitor lizard
Remains of Oldest Marsupial Found in China ABC News - December 2003
The newly found ancient animal, named Sinodelphys szalayi, is
the earliest known marsupial, meaning an animal with a pouch. It
was chipmunk-sized, about 6 inches long and weighed about an ounce,
according to Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
in Pittsburgh. Its skeleton was found in 2000 in a region where researchers
had previously found Eomaia, a fossil believed to be among the earliest
known placental mammals, of about the same age.
Ice Age Marsupial Topped Three Tons, Scientists Say National Geographic - October 2003
Bizarre 'horned' kangaroo fossils unearthed May 2003 - New Scientist
The first complete skulls of a bizarre "horned" kangaroo are the star finds in
the cache of fossils newly unearthed from caves in the Nullarbor Plain, Australia.
December 2, 1998 - Nature Magazine
Scientists in Mongolia have uncovered a pair of fossils that may contain evidence of some of the earliest characteristics of marsupials, or mammals that develop their young in a pouch. The newly discovered specimens of Deltatheridium, an opossum-like animal, are 80 million years old, which would mean they lived among the dinosaurs.
The discovery more closely defines the time period when marsupials emerged, said Guillermo W. Rougier, a paleontologist at the University of Louisville and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Rougier was among three researchers who found the specimens at Ukhaa Tolgod in the deserts of Mongolia. Marsupials represent one of three branches of mammals.
The two other branches are monotremes, such as the egg-laying duckbilled platypus, and placentals such as humans that develop their young inside the body.Besides opossums, modern marsupials include kangaroos and wallabies.
Most live in South America and Australia, but the Mongolian fossils suggest they originated in Asia.
Deltatheridium had large molars and sharp canine teeth, and probably hunted lizards and smaller mammals. Researchers said the Deltatheridium specimens share many traits with modernmarsupials, such as a bony feature in the back of the jaw where chewing muscles attached.