Fossilization
is a rare process and paleontologists are used to having to build an
image of an animal from incomplete remains. So when paleontologists
unearthed a mass grave of Diprotodon skeletons and other Australian
megafauna in June 2012, they couldn't believe their luck.
"It's a palaeontologist's goldmine where we can really see what these megafauna were doing, how they actually behaved, what
their ecology was," said Scott Hucknall (Queensland Museum in Brisbane)
told the BBC. "With so many fossils it gives us a unique opportunity to
see these animals in their environment, basically, so we can
reconstruct it."
The Queensland site is thought to hold the
remains of 50 Diprotodons - the largest marsupial to ever live, about
the size of a rhino, and often referred to as "a mega-wombat" (Hucknall
likens it to "a cross between a wombat and a bear"). One of these
fossils, named Kenny by the researchers, is the biggest Diprotodon ever
found and has a jawbone of around 70 cm (about 28 inches) long. The
fossils are between 100,000 and 200,000 years old, but Diprotodon is
thought to have been around until 50,000 years ago when the first humans
appeared in Australia - though it's greatly debated what role humans
may have played.
It's thought that these animals were
attempting to take refuge from a drought and mistakenly entered a
boglike environment. They are not the only fossils there. The teeth of a
6 metre (20 foot) long lizard named Megalania and the teeth and back
plates of a huge prehistoric crocodile have been uncovered, as have
fossils of 2 and a half metre (8 foot) kangaroos.
Photo: Diprotodon reconstruction in the Australian Museum. Credit to James King.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
http://www.livescience.com/
http://phys.org/news/
Fossilization
is a rare process and paleontologists are used to having to build an
image of an animal from incomplete remains. So when paleontologists
unearthed a mass grave of Diprotodon skeletons and other Australian
megafauna in June 2012, they couldn't believe their luck.
"It's a palaeontologist's goldmine where we can really see what these megafauna were doing, how they actually behaved, what their ecology was," said Scott Hucknall (Queensland Museum in Brisbane) told the BBC. "With so many fossils it gives us a unique opportunity to see these animals in their environment, basically, so we can reconstruct it."
The Queensland site is thought to hold the remains of 50 Diprotodons - the largest marsupial to ever live, about the size of a rhino, and often referred to as "a mega-wombat" (Hucknall likens it to "a cross between a wombat and a bear"). One of these fossils, named Kenny by the researchers, is the biggest Diprotodon ever found and has a jawbone of around 70 cm (about 28 inches) long. The fossils are between 100,000 and 200,000 years old, but Diprotodon is thought to have been around until 50,000 years ago when the first humans appeared in Australia - though it's greatly debated what role humans may have played.
It's thought that these animals were attempting to take refuge from a drought and mistakenly entered a boglike environment. They are not the only fossils there. The teeth of a 6 metre (20 foot) long lizard named Megalania and the teeth and back plates of a huge prehistoric crocodile have been uncovered, as have fossils of 2 and a half metre (8 foot) kangaroos.
Photo: Diprotodon reconstruction in the Australian Museum. Credit to James King.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
http://www.livescience.com/
http://phys.org/news/
"It's a palaeontologist's goldmine where we can really see what these megafauna were doing, how they actually behaved, what their ecology was," said Scott Hucknall (Queensland Museum in Brisbane) told the BBC. "With so many fossils it gives us a unique opportunity to see these animals in their environment, basically, so we can reconstruct it."
The Queensland site is thought to hold the remains of 50 Diprotodons - the largest marsupial to ever live, about the size of a rhino, and often referred to as "a mega-wombat" (Hucknall likens it to "a cross between a wombat and a bear"). One of these fossils, named Kenny by the researchers, is the biggest Diprotodon ever found and has a jawbone of around 70 cm (about 28 inches) long. The fossils are between 100,000 and 200,000 years old, but Diprotodon is thought to have been around until 50,000 years ago when the first humans appeared in Australia - though it's greatly debated what role humans may have played.
It's thought that these animals were attempting to take refuge from a drought and mistakenly entered a boglike environment. They are not the only fossils there. The teeth of a 6 metre (20 foot) long lizard named Megalania and the teeth and back plates of a huge prehistoric crocodile have been uncovered, as have fossils of 2 and a half metre (8 foot) kangaroos.
Photo: Diprotodon reconstruction in the Australian Museum. Credit to James King.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
http://www.livescience.com/
http://phys.org/news/
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