From identifying animals to learning about the weird and the wonderful objects you find, our team is ready to help!
Detectives discover dingo diet
Putting our collections to good use
What had the dingo eaten?
These pieces of skin and a single toenail were recovered from a Dingo Scat which came from the Wet Tropics of North Queensland.
Answer
It may not seem much to work with but these fragments can still provide lots of information. The pieces of skin and the toenail were compared with a range of specimens in the Queensland Museum collection. By direct comparison we were able to identify the remains as the skin from the sole of the hind foot and a toenail from a young Agile Wallaby (Macropus agilis).
Forensic-style analysis of animal remains, hair, scats, and other traces can provide valuable evidence of where animals have lived, what they are doing, and who is eating who. The Queensland Museum's carefully preserved collections of animal specimens (and dried scats or poo) are a vital resource for nature detectives.
Date published: April 2010
Agile Wallaby feet from our collection.