Marsupial lion: photo, information, description

The history of the settlement of the Earth stretched out over millions of years, divided into certain historical periods. For example, the early, middle and late Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Jurassic - these and other stages occupied a huge number of millennia of development and the formation of life on the planet. In these epochs mountains grew, huge continents separated, creating new ecosystems and forming absolutely unique forms of life.

To judge them today, a modern man can only thanks to the work of paleontologists. Scientists, finding skeletons of animals such as dinosaurs, then replacing their first huge predators and a large number of herbivores, reveal the sequence of evolution of the animal world on the planet.

The Oligocene Epoch

This period of the Earth's development took time from 25 to 38 million years ago. It is of great importance in the development of new forms of life, since it was at this time that the climate began to gradually cool down, and vegetation favored a temperate climate in place of the tropical forests.

Over these millions of years, a huge glacier was formed at the South Pole, which required a lot of sea water, which led to shallowing of the oceans and exposure of large areas of land. It was occupied by new forests and vast steppes, on which grassy vegetation first appeared.

During this period, India traveled from south to north, crossing the equator, and became a neighbor of Asia, and Australia forever broke away from Antarctica. Thus, the once common ecosystem separated, creating on each new land lot its unique species. For example, marsupial animals, which developed on this continent, "swam away" with Australia. It was here in the late Oligocene period that the largest predator of the time appeared, the marsupial lion. A photo of the beast's appearance, created by scientists on its skeleton, can be seen in paleontological museums. They clearly show how powerful the animal was. The appearance of this predator was not accidental. Changes that occurred in nature led to it.

Habitat of a predator

As the land space, filled with steppes, grew more and more, this caused the emergence of a huge number of new species of herbivores, among which ruminants appeared for the first time. They are the camels of perbotheria. In addition to these, there were such species of mammals as pigs, giant rhinoceroses, buffaloes, deer and others.

The appearance of more than 25 million years ago a new type of plant - grass, caused its rapid spread across the planet. In her, unlike her predecessors, the leaves grew not at the top of the stem, but below. This allowed her to recover and grow very quickly after her first shoots were eaten by herbivores. This increased their livestock. Naturally, in the conditions of such an abundance of food, predators also developed their evolution.

It was during the late Oligocene that the first dogs and cats appeared, as well as the marsupial lion. This unique creation possessed incredible strength and agility, and the absence of a large number of competitors led to a natural increase in its population.

The unique predator

The scientific name of this animal is Thylacoleo carnifex, which means "sumkolev the butcher" (executioner). It was not without reason that he got his name, because, having caught his prey, this carnivorous animal no longer let it out of its deadly girth. This is due to the structure of its forelegs. With an increase of up to 80 cm in the back and up to 170 cm in length, it weighed from 130 to 165 kg, which led him to the first place among the predators of Australia. Although he was a thunderstorm of the steppes, his relatives are either wombats and koalas, or opossums and couscous.

Scientists have not yet come to a consensus, since the origin of the unusual tooth of a predator is not clear. Their double-edged structure resembles the jaws of rodents, which is extremely strange, since the marsupial lion (the photo below shows it) adhered exclusively to meat meals. Usually such a dental apparatus is inherent in those animals that consume vegetable feed. Thus, the Australian marsupial lion is, rather, an exception to the rules, according to which it is clear that the carnivorous dental apparatus is based on its carnivorous fangs.

Description of the skeleton of the head of the marsupial lion

Only on the remains found by paleontologists, one can judge how dangerous this animal was. Investigating its structure, scientists have drawn conclusions about how they lived, hunted and to which species the marsupial lion belonged. The description of the animal says that this is a representative of a two-cut group, to which the kangaroos belong. These two animals have one more common feature - the tail. Judging by the skeletons found on the territory of Australia, the marsupial lion used it for stability, when he sat on his hind legs.

The skeleton of a predator's head indicates that he had the strongest grasp, and when he overtook the prey and bit into it with his teeth, his powerful jaws contracted and did not let out the prey until it was weakened by the loss of blood.

The evolution of this carnivore began with forms of small size, similar to przcileo, which also belonged to the group of marsupials, lived on trees and were omnivorous. By the found skeletons of these animals it is possible to track how the structure of their jaws changed, showing a tendency to increase and elongation of the front incisors. It is from these, according to scientists, Pleistocene marsupial lion tilakoleo, with a pair of sharp front teeth.

Description of the paws

For a long time, paleontologists did not have information about what were the hind legs of this animal. All the skeletons found were with a well-preserved front part and with paws that possessed one spaced thumb. This allowed the marsupial lion to hold prey that exceeded its size.

Until the 21st century, it was not known how this animal went and hunted. Scientists proceeded from the assumptions that its structure is similar to the skeletons of ancient carnivores. Found in 2005, a whole skeleton showed that it was not quite as they expected, looked like a marsupial lion. The information obtained after they restored the appearance of the animal showed that his hind legs had a structure similar to the bear's. The limbs were slightly turned inwards, and also had a detached finger, helping the beast to grasp the branches of trees.

Thus, it turned out that the beast put the hind legs to the surface completely, which allowed him to climb trees and rocks. After this information, the suspected savanna of the savannah was moved by scientists to the forests found on the border with the steppes. Apparently, the marsupial lion was weak, so he hunted, waiting for his prey on the tree.

Body Description

Telakolev had excellent musculature. Particularly striking is his shoulder belt, equipped with thick and thick bones. In the middle of his shoulder was found a strong bone of the right form, to which, most likely, and fastened muscles. Thanks to them, his girth was deadly to the victim, because no animal could escape it, even equipped with deadly sharp teeth or claws. Although the scientists gave him the name of the marsupial lion, the structure of his body and the manner of hunting makes him look more like a leopard. He, as a representative of cats, was able to climb not only in the trees, but also in the rocks. This was confirmed by the deep traces of his claws, found in one of the caves in Australia. This animal is skilled at pulling up its forelimbs and maneuvering at altitude.

Lifestyle of the bag

Based on the structure of the animal's skeleton, the scientists came to the conclusion that it killed its victims in a matter of minutes with the help of long incisors of the lower jaw, and then tore it apart with sharp molar teeth. It is assumed that diprotodones were the main victim of this predator. These were the largest marsupials that ever lived on the planet. Their flowering occurred in the period from 1.6 million to 40,000 years ago. The largest of them exceeded the size of modern hippos and had up to 3 m in length and 2 m in height.

Considering that the marsupial lion reached only 70-80 cm in height, and in length - up to 170 cm, it was equipped with everything necessary to catch, hold and kill such a large game. Apparently, the predator chose a very large, but slow production, since he did not have the ability to quickly overtake it in the pursuit. He waited for the victim, sitting in an ambush in the grass or on the branches of a tree.

Predator environment

If you believe the finds of paleontologists, the marsupial lion of almost 2 million years was the largest and strongest predator in Australia. His arsenal of sharp teeth and claws, powerful muscles and a strong bone system made it possible to hunt for such a long time without hindrance. Due to the climate change and the development of lush vegetation, which led to an increase in herbivores, this predator had no competitors in the natural environment. His menu included prokoftodon-goliaths - giant kangaroos. They reached 3 meters in height and were quite difficult prey for the marsupial lion, who can not move quickly in the area.

The marsupial lion was not the only predator of that period. Together with him, the marsupial devil, the ancient ancestor of his descendant from Tasmania, was hunting in the steppes. Unlike tilakoleo, the devil managed to live up to our days, but in the form of individuals that do not exceed the average dog in size. Among the victims of the marsupial lion there are zygomaturtsy - living in the same period mammals, similar to modern dwarf hippos, as well as palorhesthes, obtained from paleontologists as "giant marsupial tapir." Its dimensions are comparable to a modern horse. Most of the animals of that period died out, but some evolved and survived to the present day.

The cause of extinction

With regard to the disappearance of the marsupial lion, scientists are still arguing, as there were no enemies in its natural environment and global catastrophes also did not expose Australia to the risk of destruction. The most popular is the version that such animals have died out because 30 000 years ago these territories began to be developed by primitive people.

The fact that the predator was still alive at that time is spoken by rock carvings, where it is present. People began to hunt animals, significantly reducing their population. In addition, they destroyed the lion, considering it their main rival in the savannah. With the appearance of people from the face of the earth, almost all of the marsupial megafauna of Australia disappeared.

Recent Finds

Thanks to the finds of scientists made in the early 21st century in caves located on the Nallarbor plain, science was able to study this predator in more detail. It was here that the whole skeleton of the marsupial lion was found, on which they could restore its appearance. The animal fell into one of the caves and died there, unable to escape. In addition to it, a lot of animals lived in it, living in the same period, which could give an idea of who surrounded the predator and was its prey.

Black book

Since 1600, at the time of geographical discoveries, a book of animals either extinct by that time or on the verge of extinction began to be conducted. It includes mastodons, mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear, dodo, moa and marsupial lion. The Black Book was awarded the number of animals that disappeared from the planet, which is comparable to the number of disappeared dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, more than 1000 species of fauna have occurred in the last 500 years of human development, which either exterminated them, or destroyed and polluted their habitat.

For example, in just 27 years, such a species of aquatic animals as the sea cow discovered in the 18th century was completely destroyed. For the sake of profit such representatives of the fauna were exterminated, although before that they could survive for many millennia. At the beginning of the infamous Red Book, animals and plants under threat of extinction are described.

If the ancient predator were alive

Some scientists put forward hypotheses who would have won the battle if the marsupial lion were alive and met with the modern king of beasts. To get an answer, they will have to calculate the strength of the bite of an ancient predator and compare it with the lion's data. While such calculations were made for the saber-toothed cat.