Tingamarra Bandicoot (not yet named)
Tingamarra Bandicoot.
Illustration: A Musser © Australian Museum.
Lived: 55 million years ago (early Eocene)
Size: Length (head and body): 25cm
Description: The Tingamarra Bandicoot probably ate small animals and fruits in the forests of a swampy Eocene landscape. This little animal may provide crucial clues for working out how major groups of Australian and South American marsupials are related to one another.
Fossils: Fossilised teeth of the Tingamarra Bandicoot were discovered in 1995 at Murgon, southeastern Queensland.
Did you know?: The Tingamarra Bandicoot is more than twice as old as any other fossil bandicoot known.
