Two rare, never-before-seen mounted photos of an extinct species of bandicoot have been found in a box in the storeroom of the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology at the University of Melbourne.

Rohan Long, curator of the museum and a zoologist, stumbled upon two photos of bandicoots in a box of documents and slides that were in the basement storeroom of the medical building.

The mounted photos are two of the only known photographs of a species of a bandicoot – known as the Nullabor barred bandicoot, or butterfly bandicoot, which is sadly extinct.

Apart from a glass slide held by the South Australian Museum, these are the only known photographs of this species as a living animal.

“I had no idea I had found gold at the time,” Mr Long said.

“The photographs were part of a set of around 30 mounted photographs that I had deduced were made by British-born anatomist Frederic Wood Jones in the 1920s.”

The animals themselves were caught in the 1920s by Aboriginal collectors in outback South Australia, sent to Frederic Wood Jones at the University of Adelaide where he photographed them in captivity, and the photos were brought to Melbourne in the 1930s where Wood Jones headed up the anatomy department.

“He had a particular fascination with Australian marsupials and he was incredibly passionate about studying and documenting them, knowing that extinction was imminent for many of these species,” Mr Long said.

“The photographs were part of a set of photographs of Australian native animals and environments. I didn’t realise the significance of those bandicoot photos at all, until I reached out to a colleague in Western Australia.”

To help identify the animal in the photograph, Mr Long reached out to Dr Kenny Travouillon, Curator of Mammals at the Western Australian Museum.

“Back in 2018, we discovered a new species of bandicoot native to the Nullarbor region, which we named the Butterfly

Bandicoot or Nullarbor Barred Bandicoot (Perameles papillon), due to the distinctive butterfly-shaped patch on its rump,” Dr Travouillon said.

“We believe the species became extinct between 1930 and 1940, most likely because of introduced predators like feral cats and foxes.

“When Rohan contacted me with the photograph, I realised he had uncovered something remarkable, previously unseen photographs of this extinct species. It was a rare find and an exciting moment to be able to confirm its identity.

“We’re always trying to learn more about Australia’s lost species, so this was an extraordinary piece of the puzzle.”

Mr Long said he has a long-standing fascination with historically extinct species.

“Photographs of these species are particularly special and evocative in a way that transcends their scientific importance,” he said.

The research was published in Australian Mammalogy.