Discovering
Ausktribosphenos nyktos
The story of the discovery was officially announced in the
journal Science (Volume 278) on November
21st 1997. Two articles appear there:
The technical paper A Tribosphenic mammal from the Mesozoic of Australia by Thomas H. Rich, Patricia Vickers-Rich, Andrew Constantine, Timothy F. Flannery, Lesley Kool and Nicholas van Klaveren (page 1438) A news article Will fossil from down under upend mammal evolution? by Bernice Wuethrich (page 1401)
Read the background story as broken to the press on November 21, 1997.
Preparator and dig leader Lesley Kool describes the moment when she and the other Inverloch dig members realised that they had found something more than a little special!
The authors and discoverers of "the jaw" answer a few questions about what it all means, and what palaeontology means to them. |
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Peter Trusler's beautiful illustration of the Ausktribosphenus nyktos jaw, along with Draga Gelt's sketch of what the animal might look like. The actual length of the jaw is only 16 millimetres! |
