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During my 2002 visit to the Australian Museum, I was given a tour of the
palaeontology department. Here, I was able to get a close look at
a 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 which are 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). On this and the following two pages
are shown some thylacine fossils that have been excavated from Australia's
Pleistocene cave deposits, primarily the Wellington Caves of New South
Wales. Most of the specimens depicted are in the Australian Museum's
collection.
| A
section of a left maxilla, containing the teeth P3 through M4. Pleistocene,
Wellington Caves, NSW. Acquired from Trans Mines Dept., 1963. |
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| A
view of the opposite side of the same specimen. |
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| A
close-up of the teeth (M1-4) in a right mandible. Pleistocene, Wellington
Caves, NSW. |
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| A
fragment of a left thylacine maxilla containing the teeth P1 through M2.
Pleistocene, Wellington Caves, NSW. |
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