The fossilised skeleton of a giant marsupial the size of a small car has been found near Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.
The prehistoric creature, a diprotodontid, was common in coastal areas during the Ice Age and has been described as a giant wombat. It would have weighed almost a tonne.
Museum Victoria palaeontologist Erich Fitzgerald said the discovery was exciting because the fossilised skeleton was not only well preserved but relatively complete. The mega fauna fossil is at least 40,000 years old but may prove as much as 200,000 years old. ”This is probably the most superb example of this giant extinct marsupial yet discovered in Victoria,” Dr Fitzgerald said. ”Pending our final round of fieldwork it may yet prove to be one of the most significant examples of this kind of animal in Australia.”
Some of the specimen has been removed from the site but the painstaking work of extracting the entire fossil is still under way, almost nine months after the fieldwork began. It will be months before it is completed.
The fossil was found at the start of the year by two Sorrento locals, who noticed what appeared to be some bones sticking out of rock in an undisclosed area of the Mornington Peninsula National Park.
Dr Fitzgerald said after remaining hidden for tens of thousands of years, the fossil would have been revealed by erosion.
During the Ice Age, Australia was not covered by ice but conditions would have been cool and dry. The rock the fossil was found in would have been part of an ancient coastline marked by sand dunes and beaches.
”When this animal died it would have been very close to the sea … ambling among the sand dunes.”
Dr Fitzgerald said the size of the skeleton indicated that the diprotodontid would have been an adult.
Mornington Peninsula National Park ranger in charge Kris Rowe said the fossil site was not open to the public because it was so unstable.
