Strange Creatures of the Past: The Marsupial Lion

The Marsupial Lion looked feline with a muscular build, large stabbing teeth and cat-like claws. The prehistoric lioness carried its young in a pouch, in common with present day kangaroos. Australia's poor soil and cool climate was theorized to make the continent unable to support meat-eating predators. Limestone fossils of the giant cat, unearthed decades ago in Queensland, proved this theory false.

40 million years ago- The land known today as South America, Australia and Antarctica was joined together. The common ancestor that both South American marsupials and Australian marsupials descended from- predates before the two land masses separated. When the three continents split, they drifted off with similar kinds of animals on each. Australia never again came in contact with any other land mass or animal population; unless they flew or swam there. This isolation gave Australia its unique band of species- where marsupials were the dominant mammal group.

A strange fact- [ probably not to them ] is female marsupials have two vagina's. To match up, the male marsupial has a forked penis, with the testes in front of the penis. [ And you thought Science was boring! ] I don't know which came first, or second to accommodate- the double vagina or the two-pronged penis. Female marsupials have a placenta but it is under-developed. The young are born only 2-5 weeks after conception, entering the mother's abdominal pouch from the birth canal. The youngsters stay there until old enough to find food on their own.

The Marsupial Lion was among the biggest carnivorous mammals ever to have reigned supreme in Australia. The lion king hunted in the pine forests and river valleys which made up the Australian landscape before humans appeared on the island. Skeletal evidence left behind from these fierce stalkers for scientists to study- tells the story of a wicked killer. Specialized, slicing cheek teeth combined with deadly, hooded claws at their disposal- aided their savage kills.

The scientific name for the Marsupial Lion is Thylacoleo carnifex. In 2002, a complete juvenile lion's skeleton was discovered, preserved in an Australian cave. The mammal fell to its death well over 50,000 years ago. Archeology research hit pay dirt with the discovery of fossil specimens from a wide range of animals at this site. Inside this cavern located under the Nullarbor Plain, unsuspecting creatures had fallen through a narrow opening from the dusty plains above. Some of the animals had survived the fall, only to die from thirst and starvation.

The young lion, who was found fossilized exactly where he died, in life was over six feet in length and weighed 286 pounds. This king of beasts was capable of grasping its struggling prey with its opposable thumb-like claws. Holding them down in powerful jaws, ripping through the flesh using razor-sharp incisors. Strangling the weakened victim of its dying breath until the bloody end.

Sources:

The Future Eaters, Tim Flannery, Grove Press [2002]

A review of terrestrial mammalian and reptilian carnivore ecology in Australian fossil faunas,
Stephen Wroe, Australian Journal of Zoology [2002]

http://www.amonline.net.au/mammals/fossil/move_over_sabre.htm