| Tingamarra Temporal range: Early Eocene |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Condylarthra |
| Genus: | †Tingamarra unknown |
| Type species | |
| †Tingamarra porterorum |
|
Tingamarra is an extinct genus of mammals, from the early Eocene of Australia, about 55 million years ago. It was a ground-dwelling mammal that ate insects and fruit. It was quite small: just 20 cm from head to tail. Tingamarra probably belongs to the condylarth order: this is a primitive order of mammals which are ancestral to modern ungulates.
Tingamarra was discovered in 1987, when a single tooth was found at the Murgon fossil site in south-eastern Queensland. An ankle bone and an ear bone found at Murgon may also belong to this animal.
Tingamarra appears to be the only land-based placental mammal to have arrived in Australia before about 8 million years ago. The only other native placental mammals in Australia are rodents and Dingos (which arrived here more recently), and bats (which presumably flew in).
Most Australian mammals are marsupials instead. Scientists have long thought that when placental and marsupial mammals compete for resources, the placentals win. Before Tingamarra was found, it was thought that marsupials had done well in Australia because for many millions of years they had no placentals to compete with. The discovery of Tingamarra surprised scientists, because it meant that placental mammals were indeed in Australia many millions of years ago, and the marsupials had flourished anyway.