This kit allows budding paleontologists to scrape away a soft plaster material to reveal the hidden fossil replica. There are three types of megafauna fossils - The Thylacoleo, Obdurodon dicksoni and Thylacine. The top of the box identifies which design is included.
The fossils found in this kit are representative of the megafauna found at the World Heritage site of Riversleigh in Central West Queensland.
Thylacoleo carnifex, the largest carnivorous Australian mammal known (marsupial lion), may have hunted other Pleistocene megafauna like the giant Diprotodon. Thylacoleo was one of the first fossil mammals described from Australia, discovered not long after European settlement. It may have been an ambush predator or scavenger, and had enormous slicing cheek teeth, large stabbing incisor teeth (replacements for the canine teeth of other carnivorous mammals) and a huge thumb claw that may have been used to disembowel its prey.
Obdurodon dicksoni was a large, spoon-billed platypus from the Riversleigh area of northern Australia. Its skull is one of the most perfect fossils known from Riversleigh. Obdurodon probably fed on insect larvae, yabbies and other crustaceans, and perhaps small vertebrate animals such as frogs and fish.
Thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, was the largest living mammalian carnivore in Australia.
The Thylacine was mainly nocturnal or semi-nocturnal but was also out during the day. The animal moved at a slow pace, generally stiff in its movements. The Thylacine hunted singly or in pairs and mainly at night. Thylacines preferred kangaroos and other marsupials, small rodents and birds.
