Two striking features of Thylacoleo carnifex have led scientists to conclude that it was a voracious pouched carnivore. It is equipped with a spectacular pair of stabbing or piercing lower incisors and hugely enlarged premolars with sharp enamel margins ideal for cutting through flesh.

The limbs are adapted to climbing and grasping rather than for running. The paws are well armed with retractable claws and the hands have large, opposable ?thumbs?.

Presumably it preyed on ground dwelling megafaunal herbivores, such as the giant leaf-eating kangaroo. It is thought Thylacoleo captured its prey by ambush, probably dropping onto it from above and holding the prey in its large clawed thumbs.

Like modern lions and leopards, Thylacoleo would have clamped the prey?s neck and windpipe in its jaws, killing by suffocation. It would have been well adapted to carry its prey into a tree to feed, like leopards do today.

We will know more about the Thylacoleo and other specimens found at the site following the research and analysis to be carried out over the coming months.