Not as the legendary creature Australians call a “drop bear.” But a real, extinct marsupial named Nimbadon lived in trees in what is now Queensland about 15 million years ago. A University of New South Wales (UNSW) study examined fossil bones to learn how it grew; its tree-climbing interpretation comes from the animal’s anatomy and earlier fossil research.
What was Nimbadon?
Nimbadon was a large, herbivorous marsupial that lived in the ancient forests of what is now the Riversleigh World Heritage Area (Boodjamulla), in northwest Queensland. UNSW describes it as weighing about 70 kilograms and living roughly 15 million years ago. Its closest living relatives are wombats, although its reported tree-dwelling lifestyle was very different from theirs. UNSW Sydney’s account of the study uses “drop bear” as a playful comparison, not as the animal’s scientific name.
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How do fossils suggest Nimbadon climbed trees?
The tree-climbing interpretation rests on skeletal features, not on the growth study alone. UNSW describes Nimbadon as having strong arms, mobile shoulder and elbow joints, opposable thumbs and large, curved claws—features consistent with grasping and climbing. Earlier research was also described as indicating that it could hang from branches. These are interpretations of fossil anatomy; they do not establish every detail of how the animal moved.
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In an ABC News report published 20 May 2023, UNSW palaeontologist Mike Archer described the skeletons as evidence that Nimbadon climbed and hung among branches, supported by powerful forelimbs and large claws. The “drop bear” nickname draws on that arboreal life and the possibility that an animal could fall from a tree. It does not mean that folklore’s feared, living drop bear has been discovered.
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What did researchers learn from the fossil bones?
The UNSW team examined ten long bones from several Nimbadon individuals of different sizes. Long bones can preserve microscopic traces of growth. The researchers sampled the shafts, prepared and polished thin sections, then examined the bone structure under a microscope. Their account reports alternating periods of faster and slower growth, with some bands associated with arrested growth.
Those patterns show that growth was not uniform. The researchers suggest that shifts such as seasonal changes in food availability might help explain the alternation, but the account presents this as a possibility, not a demonstrated cause. The study appeared in the Journal of Paleontology; the UNSW account links it to DOI 10.1017/jpa.2023.22.
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Can the growth rings tell us Nimbadon’s age?
Not precisely. One individual preserved at least seven to eight growth cycles. If each cycle represented one year, that count would suggest at least eight years to reach maturity. But the researchers say they do not know how much time each cycle represents, so the annual interpretation is conditional—not a confirmed lifespan or age estimate. As the UNSW authors put it, “exactly how long it took for eight growth cycles to develop remains a mystery.”
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The growth study does not settle Nimbadon’s exact lifespan, the duration or cause of each growth cycle, or the details of its diet. UNSW describes the animal as herbivorous and says its team was investigating tooth-enamel wear to learn more about what it ate. No specific foods should be inferred from that ongoing question.
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