Sobbe, Ian (1952 - 2025)

Summary

Ian Sobbe grew up and spent his life on the land on the Darling Downs, Queensland, studying agriculture at the Queensland Agricultural College, Gatton. From childhood he was fascinated with the fossils exposed along the creeks of the Downs. In this he was encouraged by Edmund Gill, palaeontologist from the National Museum of Victoria, who visited the Downs to investigate the region's fossil deposits. As a fossil collector Sobbe was largely self-taught, and prepared his finds in his home-made fossil laboratory. One of his investigations, conducted at the Lone Pine Zoo, Brisbane, was aimed at assisting in interpreting tooth-mark patterns on bones. Among his findings were the first reported Late Pleistocene record of the carnivorous Spotted-tail Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) and the teeth from powerful, land-based predatory crocodiles in the region. He also discovered one of the most complete skeletons ever found of the "Marsupial Lion" (Thylacoleo carnifex). Sobbe presented specimens to the Queensland Museum, including upper skull elements of the giant carnivorous goanna, Megalania (Varanus priscus), the only known such specimens.

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Price, Gilbert J., 'Vale: Ian Sobbe (1952 - 2025)', Quaternary Australasia, 42 (1) (2025), 13-5, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.T2025120400010001821911589. Details
• Sobbe, I. H., 'Devils on the Downs - the tooth mark record', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 27 (2) (1990), 299-322. Details
• Sobbe, I. H., Price, G. J ., and Knezour, R. A., 'A ziphodont crocodile from the late Pleistocene King Creek catchment, Darling Downs, Queensland', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 56 (2) (2013), 601-6. Details