Cohen's Thingodonta (Yalkaparidon coheni)
Cohen's Thingodonta.
Illustration: A Musser © Australian Museum.
Lived: 23-16 million years ago (early Miocene)
Size: Length (head and body): about 20cm
Description: Thingodonta is one of the strangest fossil marsupials known. It is hard to tell how it lived or what it ate because it is so different from any other marsupial. We can't even look to its relatives for clues about its lifestyle because nobody knows what its closest relatives are. We do know it lived in the rainforest. The shape of its teeth has led some people to suggest that it ate caterpillars or perhaps eggs.
Fossils: Fossils of Thingodonta have been found at Riversleigh in north-western Queensland. They include a skull, a couple of jaws and many individual teeth.
Did you know?: Thingodonta belongs to the only completely extinct order of Australian marsupials, the Order Yalkaparidontia.
