Ancient Australian Marsupial Ate Snails Whole

The fossils of an ancient Australian marsupial have been discovered in northwestern Queensland. The marsupial ate snails whole. It had a unique massive shell-cracking premolar tooth that enabled it to consume snails shell and all.

The marsupial lived about 15 million years ago. The fossils were discovered by a by a UNSW Australia-led team of researchers. The fossils were found at the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil deposits, which have produced many previously unknown animals.

Mike Archer, a UNSW Professor and study leader, says in a statement, "Malleodectes mirabilis was a bizarre mammal, as strange in its own way as a koala or kangaroo. Uniquely among mammals, it appears to have had an insatiable appetite for escargot-snails in the whole shell. Its most striking feature was a huge, extremely powerful, hammer-like premolar that would have been able to crack and then crush the strongest snail shells in the forest."

A research paper on the discovery was published here in the journal Scientific Reports.

Image: Peter Schouten

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