Australia’s most diverse marsupial predators have been hiding their origins for millions of years

Scientists have identified the earliest known dasyurid—the diverse family of carnivorous marsupials that includes the Tasmanian devil and quoll. Per The Conversation Australia, researchers discovered Miyumba chrisdickmani, a mouse-sized fossil from Queensland's Riversleigh region. At just thirty grams when alive, the creature possessed distinctive dental features that gave paleontologists a reliable way to finally identify early dasyurids. This discovery pushes their evolutionary origins back to around twenty-three million years ago, five million years earlier than previously established. Particularly striking: Miyumba lived in lush rainforests, suggesting modern dasyurids descended from rainforest ancestors before adapting to Australia's increasingly dry environments.

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