How ABC Australia made 2 hours of TV about an ancient true crime mystery
July 22, 2024 4:45 AM   Subscribe

 
A casual bushwalk back then could have ended with you becoming lunch for Thylacoleo — a marsupial "lion" armed with bone-crushing jaws —
[Australian museum:] "The diet of Thylacoleo has been the subject of much debate. Thylacoleo has been described as a carnivore, a bone crusher, a scavenger or perhaps even an herbivore. It was first described by Sir Richard Owen as 'one of the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts' (Owen 1859). Its unusual teeth and herbivorous ancestry, however, prompted further suggestions, including crocodile eggs, carrion, meat and bone marrow. The suggested diet raising the most eyebrows, however, is that of cycad nuts or native cucumbers (dubbed the 'melon-muncher' hypothesis)"
posted by HearHere at 7:14 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


Given that

1. Thylacoleo had more bite-force than a modern day tiger.

2. There are kangaroo bones with deep indentations in the bone that match a bite from Thylacoleo's teeth

it's very unlikely that it was a vegetarian...
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:16 AM on July 22


flexitarian perhaps :-)
posted by HearHere at 7:54 AM on July 22


It's such a mystery.

What could have possibly killed all the megafauna in Australia 50,000 years ago (when humans arrived)?

Or the megafauna in Europe 40 kya (when humans arrived)
Or in Japan 20 kya (when humans arrived)
Or in North America 13 kya (when humans arrived)
Or in South America 10 kya (when humans arrived)
Or in Madagascar 5 kya (when humans arrived)
Or in New Zealand 1 kya (when humans arrived)

I guess we'll never know.
posted by happyinmotion at 2:38 PM on July 22 [5 favorites]


What could have possibly killed all the megafauna in Australia 50,000 years ago (when humans arrived)?

Much of the megafauna in Australia died out 20,000 years after humans arrived.

And scientific samples of lake beds and tree rings shows that,

while humans may have played a role either directly (killing animals or taking eggs) or indirectly (setting fires to promote the growth of grasses with edible seeds)

a significant shift in climate that resulted in forests becoming grasslands [on a scale that could not have been due to deliberate burning] and massive inland lakes drying out completely also played a big role.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:54 PM on July 22 [2 favorites]


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