Marsupials lived 25M years ago in what is now northern part of Queensland state
Australian scientists have found fossils of three carnivorous marsupials that lived millions of years ago and were previously unknown to science, a new study said on Wednesday.
The marsupials lived 25 million years ago in what is now the northern part of the state of Queensland, said a statement from the Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW), which conducted the study.
The study was published in Historical Biology, a peer-reviewed journal in Britain.
These discoveries reveal that ancient Australia hosted far more carnivorous marsupials than once thought.
The fossils belong to a group called malleodectids – marsupials with big, hammer-shaped rear premolars adapted to smash the hard shells of snails to eat their soft flesh, it said.
These creatures lived during a time when the region was warm, humid and forested.
Fossilized teeth suggest that snail-eating marsupials evolved slowly over millions of years alongside warmer, wetter climates and richer forests with diverse prey, like hard-bodied snails.
According to Timothy Churchill, UNSW paleontologist, the study's lead author, Malleodectids thrived for at least 15 million years, filling diverse carnivorous roles, including specialized ones no longer practiced by Australian marsupials today, such as snail-eating.
The three new carnivorous marsupials, weighing 110-250 grams, shared the forest with a broad range of other marsupials of various sizes that inhabited a wide range of ecological niches.
"The picture emerging is overturning old ideas that Australia was dominated by 'simple' marsupials while reptiles ruled the ecosystem," Churchill said.
*Writing by Aamir Latif
