Australian Cretaceous Tribosphenic Mammals: Their Recovery and Interpretation.

In 1997, the discovery of a single jaw near Inverloch, Victoria, seriously challenged the view that placental mammals originated in the Northern Hemisphere during the Mesozoic and only later reached the Southern Hemisphere. Subsequent recovery and study of additional specimens from the same site reinforces the original interpretation. Continuation of this project is proposed to acquire further material of this nature from the only locality in Australia where such fossils have been found. As a byproduct of this project, the first Australian mammal other than a marsupial, monotreme, or placental has been found: an exclusively Mesozoic group: the Eupantotheria.