Prehistoric big bird discovered in Nullarbor cave

Fossilised remains of a prehistoric bird, possibly a wedge-tailed eagle, have been found in a cave on the Nullarbor Plain. The bird is more than 780,000 years old!

The discovery was made during a Flinders University-led expedition involving the WA Museum.

Flinders’ palaeontologist, Dr Gavin Prideaux said the almost complete skeleton was unearthed amid dozens of bird bones in a cave known as Leaena’s Breath Cave – about 70 kilometres on the WA side of the border with South Australia.

“We’ve only ever found one partial eagle fossil before so, given how complete this specimen is, it would be an exciting discovery,” Dr Prideaux said.

“We’ll need to get the specimen back to Flinders University to determine whether it is, indeed, an eagle and, if so, whether it is the same species as the modern wedge-tailed eagle or something new,” he said.

“It may be new given that it is at least 780,000 years old and probably much older. Surrounding these larger bones are literally hundreds of songbird bones, a situation mirrored through the rest of the deposit.

“This cave has been acting as a bird death trap for at least a million years, which is just one thing that makes this one of the most interesting and unique palaeontological sites in Australia.”

The discovery was made on only the second day of the field trip which is a collaboration between Flinders University and the Western Australian Museum.

Video and blogs of the expedition can be found at:

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/cave/videos

http://www.flinders.edu.au/cave/

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/cave/bloggers/gavin-prideaux

Alleged 'Tasmanian Tiger' skin in the news again

Yes, THAT pelt is once again in the news!

It seems that yet another biologist has aired his doubts over its authenticity as a Tasmanian Tiger skin, according to a San Diego newspaper.

UCSD biology professor J. David Archibald inspected the pelt last Wednesday and wrote in an e-mail that it appeared to be a zebra duiker, a small African antelope.

“While I cannot make any definitive assessment other than the pelt is genuine, I lean toward it being a zebra duiker based on the cumulative evidence,” Archibald wrote in the e-mail provided by its owner, Bill Warren.

“Even if this identification is correct, this is a threatened species, and the pelt might be valuable if it can be sold legally.”

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has denied Warren a permit to send the skin to a Sydney auction house. The department denied his request because he couldn’t prove the species of the pelt. It also questioned the age of the pelt, saying it looked too new to belong to the long-dead species.

Readers of this blog will already know our opinion of the skin and what has transpired thus far.

Stay tuned!

Uncertainty over 'Tassie Tiger' pelt

A Fallbrook man's belief that he owns a valuable Tasmanian tiger pelt has been challenged by a US Fish and Wildlife Service official.

The question of whether Bill Warren's pelt is from a Tasmanian tiger or a Zebra Duiker, as a federal wildlife official believes, could be a costly difference for the Fallbrook resident. He bought the pelt last year at a garage sale for $5 and hopes to sell it in Australia for tens of thousands of dollars.

More pressing for Warren, the uncertainty also prohibits him from sending the pelt to Australia for a DNA test that could clear up the uncertainty.

"They're putting me in a Catch-22 situation, and I can't satisfy it," Warren said.
"I just should give up."
If he does give up, Warren will be out the $100 he has paid for an application to send the pelt out of state, plus the $5 he spent when he bought the skin at a Fallbrook garage sale last year.

But he also could be out much more.
As reported in the North County Times in October, Warren discovered after he bought the pelt, that it may have come from a Tasmanian tiger, often called a thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial considered extinct in its homeland of Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea.

An official at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles said after looking at a photo of the pelt that it looks like it's from a Tasmanian tiger.

The pelts have sold for as high as $270,000 in Australia, where the animals are fondly remembered but considered extinct since 1936, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

As discussed before on this blog, Bill Warren contacted us some time ago seeking help in identifying the skin, which we believe is possibly that of a Zebra Duiker, a small antelope-like creature.

CFZer Mike Williams is seen holding such a skin at the Weird Weekend 2010 (below) - compare it to the skin Bill Warren is holding at the bottom of the page. What do you think?