Whollydooleya, Batman! The Tasmanian Devil's Bigger, Badder Cousin

Tasmanian devils like this li'l fella, a resident named Neville at the Trowunna Wildlife Park in Tasmania, are the nearest living relatives of newly described carnivorous marsupial Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum. Credit: G. Tarlach. Thank you, Australia. One of your many contributions to the world is an amazing collection of unique animals past and present that, let's be honest, are just fun. Adorable echidnas, sweet little pademelons (you cannot be angry when you say their name...try it), koalas, wombats and, of course, the Tasmanian devils, what I like to think of as lapdogs of Mordor. The devils, often misunderstood and now tragically imperiled by disease, are cousins to the latest fossil find out of the island nation's northeast: Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum. The carnivorous marsupial is estimated to have been at least twice the size of today's devils. It's just the latest animal to emerge from Australia's fossiliferous northeast, which includes the famous Riversleigh, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Whollydooleya, Wholly for short, is considered a hypercarnivore. While that sounds either like some kind of super predator, or maybe a carnivore with a lot of energy, it just means it ate mostly meat. Not exciting enough for you? Okay, well consider that the description of the animal, published in Memoirs of Museum Victoria, paints a picture of a carnivore weighing around 50 pounds (20-25kg), considerably bigger than a Tassie devil (22 pounds, or 10kg), with teeth capable of shearing through all things munchable and crunchable.