Science: Marsupial Graveyard

Name: diprotodon. Age: uncertain. Domicile: Australia. Physical characteristics: looks like a rhinoceros but has a pouch like a kangaroo. These are the vital specifications of one of the strangest prehistoric beasts known. Henceforth, thanks to Ruben A. Stirton, professor of paleontology at the University of California, scientists will learn a lot more about the diprotodon than the few fragmentary facts which, in the past, enabled them to put together only a vague sort of passport picture.

For months Stirton has been poking around in the dry northeastern corner of South Australia, in a place where fossil bones had been reported. Last week,...