Marsupial lion
Live reconstruction of Thylacoleo carnifex
(Also called " marsupial lion " ) Thylacoleo carnifex is an extinct species bag from the order of DIPROTODONTIA. He was the most famous and largest animal of the family of the bag lions ( Thylacoleonidae ), which is occupied fossil since the late Oligocene. Thylacoleo carnifex appeared around 1.8 million years ago during the Pleistocene and became extinct until about 45,000 years ago.
Description
This animal reached a length of 1.5 m and a weight of more than 110 kg; single skull findings suggesting but close to individual animals of significantly more than 150 kg. Thylacoleo carnifex was a very strong -built predator with a pronounced muscles, which is why he reached a very high weight despite its rather short body length. Especially the front legs and shoulders were strongly developed and the thick bones gave strong muscles hold. Approximately in the middle of the humerus ( upper arm bone) sat a real bump, ansetzten to the very strong muscles. They allowed the animal to cling with his thumb claw itself to large and fortified prey. One of its most striking features was the spreadable thumb of the front paw, probably served to hold the prey. With the long incisors of the lower jaw, the prey was probably stabbed to death literally and cut with, molded into huge scissors, molars. Thylacoleo carnifex had by all known mammals, the most powerful fangs. Even with the equally specialized in large animals big cats such as lions and tigers, or even the various extinct saber-toothed cats, these teeth were not as pronounced. Moreover Thylacoleo had a very high bite force, perhaps more than any other known mammalian predators. However, his skull was completely built differently in this regard than in placental mammals or most predatory marsupials such as Tasmanian Devil or quoll. Because instead of the otherwise highly developed, springing at the temples temporalis muscle, these animals had a huge masseter muscle, which has its origin on the upper jaw. Such a shape can be found actually more of herbivores, but that Thylacoleoniden were carnivores, is beyond question. The reason is the evolution of Thylacoleoniden, because in fact these were highly specialized carnivores descendants of herbivorous marsupials, koalas were similar. Only evolutionarily short time ago started these animals to evolve from herbivores to omnivores and finally to highly specialized predators. Some early forms were just as big as cats and seem more likely to have eaten insects and small vertebrates, whereas the youngest and largest species, Thylacoleo carnifex, apparently even chased the rhino large Diprotodonten, such as bite marks on the bones of these gigantic marsupials show.
Way of life
The diet of Thylacoleo carnifex has long been controversial. While all the other animals of the order of DIPROTODONTIA are plants or omnivores, suggest the teeth of the bag lions that he fed on meat. His first describer, paleontologist Richard Owen, described him in 1859 as "one of the fiercest predators in general." Other researchers suggested that he had fed on carrion or even because DIPROTODONTIA are no predators of plants. Recent studies of the skull and mandible showed that he was clearly a carnivore, perhaps one of the fittest of the entire mammalian kingdom.
Extinktionszeitraum and human
The first Aboriginal possibly met yet these animals, but this discussion is controversial in science since the 1980s, as well as the reasons for the extinctions of Australian megafauna and whether Homo sapiens played a role. A rock drawing in Kimberley, Western Australia, was interpreted as a figure Thylacoleo carnifex. That would mean that people who colonized ( the name of the shelf area of Australia and New Guinea) more than 45,000 Sahul years ago met with Thylacoleo carnifex, which became extinct about 45,000 years ago. This is contradicted by other interpretations.