"Granddaddy of Kangaroos" Found in Aussie Fossil National Geographic - December 20, 2007

Mega-marsupials once roamed Australia CNN - January 26, 2007

Canberra, Australia -- Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by arriving humans, scientists said on Thursday. The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves. Fossilized remains were uncovered almost intact in a series of three deep caves in the center of the Nullarbor desert -- east of the west coast city of Perth -- in October 2002. "Three subsequent expeditions produced hundreds of fossils so well-preserved that they constitute a veritable "Rosetta Stone for Ice-Age Australia", expedition leader Gavin Prideaux said of the find, detailed in the latest edition of the journal Nature.

The team discovered 69 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including eight new species of kangaroo, some standing up to 9 feet tall. Protected from wind and rain, and undisturbed due to their remote location, the remains of the mega-beasts are in near-perfect condition, including the first-ever complete skeleton of a marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex. "Unwary animals bounding around in the case of kangaroos, or running around in the case of marsupial lions and wombats, fell down these holes, as presumably most were nocturnal. It's very difficult to see a small opening on a flat surface at night," Prideaux said. Research into the fossils challenges recent claims that Australia's megafauna were killed off by climate change, pointing the finger instead at fires, probably lit by the first human settlers who transformed the fragile landscape. The lands inhabited by the megafauna once supported flowers, tall trees and shrubs. But isotopes extracted from skeletal enamels show the climate was hot and arid, similar to today. The plants, the scientists said, were highly sensitive to so-called fire-stick farming, where lands were deliberately cleared by fires to encourage re-growth. "Australian megafauna could take all that nature could throw at them for half-a-million years, without succumbing," said Richard Roberts, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong. "It was only when people arrived that they vanished."

Australia: Caverns give up huge fossil haul BBC - January 24, 2007

An astonishing collection of fossil animals from southern Australia is reported by scientists. The creatures were found in limestone caves under Nullarbor Plain and date from about 400,000-800,000 years ago. The palaeontological "treasure trove" includes 23 kangaroo species, eight of which are entirely new to science. The caves also yielded a complete specimen of Thylacoleo carnifex, an extinct marsupial lion. It appears the unsuspecting creatures fell to their deaths through pipes in the dusty plain surface that periodically opened and closed over millennia. Most of the animals were killed instantly but others initially survived the 20m drop only to crawl off into rock piles to die from their injuries or from thirst and starvation.

Extinct Australian "Lion" Was Big Biter, Expert Says National Geographic

Two million years ago bizarre creatures roamed the Australian continent - the flesh-eating giant rat-kangaroo, the thunder bird, the marsupial wolf, and a giant monitor lizard

Remains of Oldest Marsupial Found in China ABC News - December 2003

The newly found ancient animal, named Sinodelphys szalayi, is the earliest known marsupial, meaning an animal with a pouch. It was chipmunk-sized, about 6 inches long and weighed about an ounce, according to Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Its skeleton was found in 2000 in a region where researchers had previously found Eomaia, a fossil believed to be among the earliest known placental mammals, of about the same age.

Ice Age Marsupial Topped Three Tons, Scientists Say National Geographic - October 2003

Bizarre 'horned' kangaroo fossils unearthed May 2003 - New Scientist

The first complete skulls of a bizarre "horned" kangaroo are the star finds in the cache of fossils newly unearthed from caves in the Nullarbor Plain, Australia.

December 2, 1998 - Nature Magazine

Scientists in Mongolia have uncovered a pair of fossils that may contain evidence of some of the earliest characteristics of marsupials, or mammals that develop their young in a pouch. The newly discovered specimens of Deltatheridium, an opossum-like animal, are 80 million years old, which would mean they lived among the dinosaurs.

The discovery more closely defines the time period when marsupials emerged, said Guillermo W. Rougier, a paleontologist at the University of Louisville and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Rougier was among three researchers who found the specimens at Ukhaa Tolgod in the deserts of Mongolia. Marsupials represent one of three branches of mammals. The two other branches are monotremes, such as the egg-laying duckbilled platypus, and placentals such as humans that develop their young inside the body.Besides opossums, modern marsupials include kangaroos and wallabies.

Most live in South America and Australia, but the Mongolian fossils suggest they originated in Asia. Deltatheridium had large molars and sharp canine teeth, and probably hunted lizards and smaller mammals. Researchers said the Deltatheridium specimens share many traits with modernmarsupials, such as a bony feature in the back of the jaw where chewing muscles attached.

PALEONTOLOGY INDEX

PHYSICAL SCIENCES

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES

CRYSTALINKS MAIN PAGE

CRYSTALINKS MAILING LIST, NEWSLETTER, UPDATES

PSYCHIC READING WITH ELLIE

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Search Crystalinks     Web