Posted on 07/30/2002 5:27:05 PM PDT by HAL9000
SYDNEY, July 30 (AFP) - The fossilised remains of giant lions and other ferocious monsters that once stalked the earth have been discovered in the Australian outback, scientists announced Tuesday.A wombat -- a burrowing, pig-like marsupial that carries its young in a pouch -- the size of a mini car and the world's largest kangaroo were among the creatures unearthed in caves on the Nullarbor Plain, the vast desert stretching from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to South Australia's Gawler Ranges.
Some of the creatures are believed to be species never previously discovered.
The fossils, believed to be around 1.5 million years old, were described by palaeontologist John Long of Perth's Western Australian Museum Tuesday as "the find of the century."
"It was a combination of the most perfect complete skeletons of the marsupial lions which previously was not known from a complete individual and also the discovery of unusual megafauna which we believe are going to be new species," Long told AFP.
"Some of the kangaroos are very unusual indeed."
The most unusual included a giant kangaroo three metres (almost 10 feet) tall and wallabies, which are small kangaroos, with sickle claws and horn-like ridges over their eyes.
Long and a 14-member team discovered the fossils during a two-week dig this month after the site was originally discovered this year by cavers using an ultralight aircraft to find new caves.
Among the creatures found during the dig dubbed "Operation Leo" was a complete skeleton of the giant marsupial lion, "Leo", or thylacoleo carnifex.
The carnivorous thylacoleo was armed with deadly front incisors, secateur-like sheering teeth for ripping into flesh and a pair of retractable claws which the team believes were used for disemboweling animals or for dragging their prey up trees.
Long believes it to have been one of the most ferocious mammalian predators that ever lived.
Six more were found in one cave, which Long said had obviously acted as a trap that became a tomb for unwary animals over thousands of years.
A most complete skeleton of a "Leo" ever found is now on display at the museum in Perth.
The world's largest goanna, known as the megalania, which ran down its prey, was discovered in another cave. Two Tasmanian tigers, declared extinct earlier this century, were also found.
"The most important thing about the site which is not seen in any other fossil site in Australia is that the caves contain perfectly preserved, undamaged megafauna," Long said.
"It is like they went to sleep and their bones are lying in perfect articulation where they died.
"This is a unique situation where the caves must have been sealed off shortly after the animals were trapped and died so we've got these ancient animals in a perfectly undisturbed and complete state.
"But it's the tip of the iceberg as to what we hope to find in future expeditions.
"We won't know how old they are until we get the results of the dating back.
"These caves are perfectly dry because the entrances must have been blocked up probably by rotting vegetation shortly after the animals died so they have been kept in perfectly dry, mummifying conditions."
Long said it remains unclear what drove the giant marsupials to extinction.
"One theory is that the arrival of humans in Australia about 60,000 years ago began the collapse of the megafauna through hunting," he said.
"The other theory is simply climate changes and vegetation changes eventually lead to the extinction of the megafauna."
Isn't that how old that glass, ceramic, and stone relief map of Russia was?
Maybe the people who made that map went down to Australia and murdered the megafauna.
gosh, and i thought a white stain on a blue dress was the find of the century
That was last century.
We're only 1 year and 8 months into this century.
There will be nothing worth finding for the next 98 years and 4 months?
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