Megafauna Find

Scary Pre-historic Monsters

There are lots of those that fit that moniker, but for the moment consider this: the most frightening, land mammalian carnivore may not have been the lion, but the marsupial lion.

The largest creatures to fall into the caves were giant wombats weighing about 200 kilograms and similar-sized giant kangaroos. This may have been the maximum size of creature that could fit down the small chimney holes.

From the pristine condition of the remains it is thought the holes must have been sealed for hundreds of thousands of years.

Nonetheless, the bones the scientists found were extremely fragile and had to be hardened using a chemical process before being wrapped and removed from the site in hard plastic cases.

All but one of the species of lizards that fell into the caves still scurry around the plain today.

Most of the small mammals - which included possums, dunnarts, antechinuses, bandicoots and bilbies - are also still alive, but do not all live on the now-denuded Nullarbor.

Two species of parrots were also found. This "suggests the presence of hollow-forming trees useful for nesting", Prideaux says.

Altogether, the remains of 11 marsupial lions, Thylacoleo carnifex, were found in the caves, which have been named the Thylacoleo Caves in their honour.

These 100-kilogram creatures were Australia's fiercest predators, with the most powerful bite of any known animal, including the sabre-toothed tiger, hyena and Tasmanian devil.

Interesting find. Let'ds call it a' landshark' instead... only kidding! :)