This group includes the closest relatives of Thylacoleo's family, the koalas and wombats.

这个群体包括袋熊家族的近亲、考拉和袋熊。

But Thylacoleo had gone in the complete opposite direction on its journey to carnivory.

但袋狮在肉食性的旅程中却走上了完全相反的方向。

As the biggest of the marsupial lions, Thylacoleo carnifex was uniquely suited to feasting on the grazing megafauna that roamed Pleistocene Australia.

作为最大的有袋狮子，袋狮非常适合捕食更新世澳大利亚的大型食草动物。

The only reliably-dated Thylacoleo fossils were found in eastern Australia, not in Arnhem Land, with  the youngest of these dating to 40,000 years ago.

唯一确定年代可靠的袋蜥化石是在澳大利亚东部发现的，而不是在阿纳姆地， 其中最年轻的化石可追溯到 40,000 年前。

But the family Thylacoleo belonged to stemmed from a completely different marsupial group, instead – a group that is otherwise totally herbivorous, called the Vombatiformes.

但袋狼科所属的家族却起源于一个完全不同的有袋动物群体——一个完全草食性的群体，称为袋熊目。

This ecological opportunity drove the evolution of the marsupial lions, resulting in their strange patchwork of carnivorous traits that culminated in Thylacoleo carnifex.

这种生态机会推动了有袋狮子的进化，导致了它们奇怪的肉食性特征的拼凑， 最终形成了袋狮。

Thylacoleo carnifex translates to " meat-cutting marsupial lion." It was named by British naturalist Richard Owen in 1859, based on fossils that were sent to him.

Thylacoleo carnifex 翻译过来就是“切肉的有袋狮子”。它是由英国博物学家理查德·欧文于 1859 年根据寄给他的化石命名的。

And while we know thylacines and Thylacoleo both existed, there are other animals in the Arnhem Land pictures that seem to straddle the line between imagination and reality.

虽然我们知道袋狼和袋狼都存在，但阿纳姆地的照片中还有其他动物似乎跨越了想象与现实之间的界限。

It was the biggest and most powerful predatory marsupial ever known to have existed - one without any parallel in its environment today: the marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex.

它是迄今为止已知存在的最大、最强大的掠食性有袋动物——在当今的环境中没有任何可比拟的：有袋狮子，Thylacoleo carnifex。

While Thylacoleo carnifex was the first member of the marsupial lion family to be discovered, the fossil record of this family stretches back tens of millions of years.

虽然袋狮是第一个被发现的有袋狮科成员，但该科的化石记录可以追溯到数千万年前。

And if the cave drawing really represents a Thylacoleo, it suggests that people in Arnhem Land might've been familiar with this creature - hopefully from a distance, as these predators are thought to have been hyper-carnivores.

如果洞穴壁画真的代表袋狼，这表明阿纳姆地的人们可能熟悉这种生物——希望是从远处看，因为这些食肉动物被认为是超级食肉动物。

But thanks to the discovery of several more complete specimens found in a series of caves over the last couple of  decades, in 2018 researchers unveiled the first full skeletal reconstruction of Thylacoleo carnifex.

但由于过去几十年来在一系列洞穴中发现了几个更完整的标本，研究人员在 2018 年首次展示了袋狼的完整骨骼重建。

But the story of Thylacoleo carnifex and its relatives shows us that inside even the least likely species is the evolutionary potential to become an apex predator, given enough time and the right selective pressures.

但袋狼及其近亲的故事告诉我们，只要有足够的时间和适当的选择压力， 即使是最不可能的物种也有成为顶级捕食者的进化潜力。

The genus Thylacoleo alone was able to survive through the Pliocene into the Pleistocene epoch, where it eventually gave rise to Thylacoleo carnifex – the last and largest member of its family, which survived until around forty thousand years ago.

仅袋狼属就能够从上新世生存到更新世，最终产生了袋狼科——袋狼科中最后也是最大的成员，一直存活到大约四万年前。