WONAMBI - 2001, Acrylics on paper & 2D digital


c. 200 thousand years ago, Naracoorte, South Australia.

A giant Tasmanian Devil returns home after a night on the prowl to find the giant snake Wonambi blocking the entrance to its lair. Wonambi naracoortensis was a heavily built snake of southern Australia that could grow to over 5 m in length. Despite appearances, it was not a python but rather the last survivor of an ancient serpent family called the Madstoiidae, a group whose fossil record goes back to the Cretaceous. Unlike modern snakes, Wonambi was unable to fully disarticulate its jaw which restricted the size of the prey it could swallow.

The Giant Devil, Sarcophilus laniarius, was simply a somewhat larger fossil version of the modern day Tasmanian Devil, S. harrisi . It has been suggested that the two animals are one and the same in which case the name laniarius has priority. I imagined the mainland-dwelling Devil in this picture to have sparser fur and a more extensive white coat than its living Tasmanian kin. A number of present day Tasmanian marsupials, like the red-necked wallaby, are darker and shaggier than their mainland counterparts to cope with the cooler climate of that region.

This image originally appeared in Nature Australia, Summer 2001-2002 (Australian Museum).


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Art and text © Brian Choo 2004

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