Rarely seen and once thought to be extinct, Victorian State faunal emblem the Leadbeater's Possum is now on display at Melbourne Museum. Named after Museum Victoria's first taxidermist, John Leadbeater - who prepared the first specimen in 1867 - the tiny, Leadbeater's Possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) is a nocturnal marsupial that was thought to be extinct for the first half of the 20th Century. 2011 is the 50th anniversary of the Leadbeater's rediscovery near Marysville in 1961.