![]() Relatively few of the bones in the cave show bite marks. The nature of the bones in Tight Entrance Cave bolsters this vision of Thylacoleo hunkering down in the dark. And while Arman and Prideaux concede that some of the smaller scratches could have been made by other animals trying to find their way out of the cave, from possums to Tasmanian tigers, their preferred interpretation is that most of the smaller scratches were left by Thylacoleo joeys who were reared in the safety of the cave. Only one animal in the cave matches the size and anatomy required to make the largest scratches: Thylacoleo. In addition to a bonebed cradling the bones of both living and extinct marsupial species, the main chamber of the cavern is marked here and there by V-shaped scratch marks. Southwestern Australia’s Tight Entrance Cave yielded the essential clues. Now Samuel Arman and Gavin Prideaux have forwarded even more evidence that Thylacoleo was a skilled climber: thousands of scratch marks in the lair of Australia’s real drop bear. Back in 2010, paleontologist Roderick Wells and colleagues found that the paws of this marsupial predator would have been just as useful for climbing trees as grappling with the large prey of its era. The other has to do with its hunting habits. The kinship of Thylacoleo is only half of the drop bear equation, though. Thylacoleo was closer to being a carnivorous koala than a pouched cat. That fits given that Thylacoleo belonged to the group of marsupial mammals called the diprotodonts, which includes kangaroos, wombats, koalas, and possums today. The carnivore’s skull is a modified version of a koala’s or wombat’s, just with cleaver-like shearing teeth at the cheek instead of grinders. Paleontologists and fossil fans know this beast as Thylacoleo carnifex, the “marsupial lion.”ĭespite the mammal’s name, Thylacoleo doesn’t hold much leonine resemblance. Yet, despite the fact that the drop bear is a modern hoax, I’m still tickled by the fact that the mythical animal’s description closely matches a very real animal that prowled Australia during the last Ice Age. There are no carnivorous koalas with a taste for tourists hanging around the eucalyptus trees of Australia. ![]() The efficacy of changing your name to Bruce is unknown. The only way to protect yourself, the locals will advise, is to slather yourself in Vegemite and speak in an Australian accent. You’ll just be walking along, minding your own business, when a dark shape plummets onto you from above, pinning you down before your realize that you’re being eaten alive by an overgrown koala. If you ever go on a camping trip to Australia, you might be told to beware the dreaded drop bear.
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