Tiny. Marsupial. Lion. Those three words should be enough to stop you in your tracks, and if SEO worked like it ought to, this post would be flooded with traffic. I had no idea there was such a thing as a miniature lion with a baby pouch, and now that I do, I'm feeling all Veruca Salt. Come on, it's adorable.
It's a hopeless dream, of course — Microleo attenboroughi has been extinct for about 19 million years. The species was one of eight known prehistoric marsupial lions, which ranged from the diminutive to the fairly terrifying in size — one species was probably about as big as a leopard — whereas Attenborough's marsupial lion was small enough to fit snugly inside a kangaroo's pouch.
It made up for its stature with some wicked dentition, though — a close relative was described as having teeth like "a pair of bolt-cutting ...
