Tiny fossil jaws reveal dasyurids evolved 5 million years earlier than thought

From the limestone depths of Queensland's Riversleigh fossil site, six jaw fragments no larger than a fingernail have quietly resolved one of Australian paleontology's most stubborn mysteries. A mouse-sized marsupial named Miyumba chrisdickmani, living 23 million years ago amid ancient rainforests, now stands as the earliest confirmed ancestor of the dasyurids — the family that would eventually give rise to Tasmanian devils, quolls, and nearly 80 other carnivorous species. Its discovery reminds us that the great diversities of the natural world often trace back to the most unassuming of beginn