The last stop on my tour of the Australian Museum was the palaeontology department.  Here, I was able to get a close look at the spectacular assemblage of marsupial fossils which the museum has gathered together over many years.  The museum's palaeontological collection consists of over 120,000 specimens of fossil invertebrates, vertebrates and plants, utilized in research by scientists from around the globe.  Of particular interest to me of course were the fossils of the thylacine, as well as Thylacoleo carnifex (a lion-sized marsupial predator which became extinct during the Pleistocene Epoch).
 

A section of a left thylacine maxilla, containing the teeth P3 through M4.  Pleistocene, Wellington Caves, NSW.  Acquired from Trans Mines Dept., 1963.

A view of the opposite side of the same specimen.

A close-up of the teeth (M1-4) in a right thylacine mandible.  Pleistocene, Wellington Caves, NSW.

A fragment of a left thylacine maxilla containing the teeth P1 through M2.  Pleistocene, Wellington Caves, NSW.

An isolated canine tooth from a thylacine.  Pleistocene, Wellington Caves, NSW.

A partial rostrum (snout) from a large thylacine, with alveoli of the canine teeth visible at left.  Pleistocene, Wellington Caves, NSW.