In a departure from our time-honored
tradition of naming software applications after |
antelopes in my temporary absence a project
code-named Quoll was started. It was |
suggested that this was actually a clever
acronym that James Joyce would have been |
proud of: 'Qu' from my mother's maiden name
of Quealy and 'oll' from her married |
name and my last name of Zoll. There are
actually several living species of carnivorous |
marsupials living in Australia and New
Guinea named quolls: Dasyurus albopunctatus |
(New Guinea quoll), D.
geoffroii (Western Australian quoll), D. hallacatus (Northern |
Australian quoll), D. maculatus
(Spotted Australian quoll), D. spartacus (bronze New |
Guinea quoll) and D. viverrinus
(eastern Australian quoll). There is evidence of two |
fossil species: D. dunmalli is
related to D. hallacatus. Quolls are related to
Tasmanian |
devils, the antechinus, the mulgara and the
kowari. |
The purpose of our Quoll was to work
backwards from known tektite locations and |
find a impact crater location for the
800,000 year old Australasian Tektite Strewn field. |