In 1985, the vast, newly discovered limestone fossil deposits at Riversleigh in northern Queensland yielded a major surprise : a fossil between 15 and 20 million years old named " Yalkaparidon coheni " with molars like a marsupial mole, diprotodont-like incisors, and a skull base similar to that of the bandicoots.
12.
:When Stirling ( 1888 ) initially was unable to find the epipubic bones in marsupial moles, speculation was rife : the marsupial mole was a monotreme, it was the link between monotremes and marsupials, it had its closest affinities with the ( placental ) golden moles, it was convergent with edentates, it was a polyprotodont diprotodont, and so on.
13.
Attempts to resolve this puzzle include the view that the bandicoot group evolved from the carnivores, retaining the polyprotodont dentition, and independently evolving a syndactyl hind foot; the contrary view that syndactyly is so unusual that it is unlikely to have evolved twice and therefore the bandicoot group must have evolved from a possum-like diprotodont creature, and re-evolved its extra teeth.
