Found: Oldest bilby and bandicoot fossils
Million-year-old fossils of Aussie icons found in archives of US university.
A bilby. Credit: Jacob Layocan / Getty Images.
A scientist from the Western Australian Museum has discovered the oldest known fossils of two iconic Australian animals – the bilby andthe bandicoot – which had been kept for decades at the University of Washington, US.
Both the bilby and the bandicoot are small, furry, rodent-like marsupials found on mainland Australia and – in the case of the bandicoot – Papua New Guinea and parts of Indonesia.
Three new fossil bandicoots named in the study. Credit: WA Museum.
Previously, the oldest bilby (