Thylacoleo carnifex

The January 25, 2007, issue of Nature announced the first analysis of a treasure trove of fossils unearthed in southern Australian underground caves in the Nullarbor plains.

Hundreds of fossils were extremely well preserved, from the the middle Pleistocene (200,000 and 800,000 years ago).

They constitute a veritable Rosetta stone for ice age Australia. We discovered 69 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including a remarkable eight new species of kangaroo, the most common of which sported unusually large brow ridges. – Palaeontogist Gavin Prideaux
Western Australia Museum

Bert Robert, on left, Mike Morwood, right.

The most impressive find was the first complete skeleton of the marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex. Dr. Bert Roberts, who was involved in the analysis of Thylacoleo, was also one of the main members of the team behind the announcement of the discovery of the Flores woman, Homo floresiensis, the Hobbits.

Mike Morwood, Thomas Sutikna and Bert Roberts.

We didn’t have a complete skeleton of that animal [Thylacoleo carnifex] at all until we made that discovery; now we have dozens. – Bert Roberts
University of Wollongong

Within cryptozoology, a surviving species of Thylacoleo is postulated by some Australian cryptozoologists as the candidate mostly likely to succeed in explaining the reports of the cryptid Queensland tiger.