An nonextant pouched mammal king of beasts has been add to the long inclination of species call in honor of Sir David Attenborough . The newly - discoveredMicroleo attenboroughiweighed just 600 grams ( 1.5 British pound ) but bears a distinct family resemblance to some horrific beasts of more recent time .
Far back in an epoch when Australia was much wetter than it is today , marsupial Lion fill many of the corner for carnivorous beasts on the continent . Although not come to to African lions , the name reflects the strong resemblance the last survivor , Thylacoleo carnifex , stick out to the large cats .
" Microleo attenboroughiwould have been more like the cute , but still feisty , kitten of the folk , " said Dr Anna Gillespie of the University of New South Wales in astatement . “ It ’s potential thatMicroleoscampered amongst the tree - top , gobble insects as well as small vertebrates such as lizards and birds while simultaneously trying to keep off becoming a target item for its larger relatives . " Gillespie is first writer of the newspaper inPalaeontologia ElectronicadescribingMicroleo attenboroughi .
Size comparison between Microleo attenboroughi and the three other genera of marsupial Leo , Priscileo , Wakaleo and Thylacoleo . UNSW
Other member of the kin at the clock time include a species the size of it of a domestic kat and one more like a typical dog . Besides their own relatives , the marsupial Leo competed with species more close related to the recently extinctThylacine , or Tasmanian Panthera tigris , andother unusual predators .
The tooth from Microleo attenboroughi compared with the tooth row of its Pleistocene relative , the lion - sized Thylacoleo carnifex . UNSW
Only a single specimen ofMicroleohas been find oneself , date stamp from 19 million years ago in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in N - west Queensland . The single fossil is far from consummate , so no one make love if it possess the vicious pincer that contributed toThylacoleo’scapacity to tackle Australia ’s ancientthree - ton wombat .
“ We ’ve got the important piece , though , ” Gillespie told IFLScience . “ We have the third premolar , the Brobdingnagian cutting off tooth that is a characteristic of all marsupial lions . ” This tooth , shaped like a blade , was used by the family to slice into any quarry unfortunate enough to be track down by a member of the kin .
The range of carnivore in Riversleigh reverberate the extraordinary richness of prey coinage , Gillespie summate . “ The diversity at the clock time was like to what we now see in Borneo , so there were lots of niches for piranha . ” As the continent dry out the small-scale marsupial lions were replaced with Dasyurids , such asquollsandantechinuses .
An artist ’s impression of Nevil ’s Garden , the dig land site at Riversleigh where Microleo was rule , include the gravid marsupial lion Wakaleo . Dorothy Dunphy
David Attenborough has already been honor with the names ofat least tenother species , most splendidly a long - beak echidna thatmay or may not be extinct . Gillespie tell IFLScience the reasonableness to name another species after the docudrama bestower is his persona in promoting the Riversleigh deposits .
“ He has call Riversleigh one of the four most substantial dodo site in the universe . At most billet we just get a shot in sentence , but Riversleigh span 26 million year , allowing us to document the change beast in one place , and David has been subservient in publicizing that , ” she say .
