Imagine a world where giant iconic Australian animals roam around. I’m talking 2.5m tall kangaroos, 7m long crocodiles and ibis’ three times their current size. Well, maybe not that last one.
But a new journal published this year has revealed the discovery of megafauna fossils that give us a better idea of life around 40,000 years ago.
The megafauna fossil remains were discovered in Australia’s tropical northeast.
While we aren’t too keen on the idea of mega crocodiles, it is pretty amazing to imagine the world that existed over 40 Millenium ago and how much fauna has changed since then. Especially considering that 13 of the 16 identified megafauna animals are now classed as extinct.
In an unusual discovery, the fossils remained preserved which is almost unheard of in the climate that they were found. It was a slow process of unearthing and piecing the fossils together but researchers can give themselves a pat on the back for the remarkable findings. Such included leaves, seeds, pollen, insects and molluscs, providing evidence of an environment that was home to megaherbivores, carnivorous reptiles and predators such as giant wombats, a six-metre long monitor lizard and a marsupial lion-like species.
It is also an important discovery for determining what was responsible for the extinction of these animals and now we can safely say that it wasn’t the arrival of us humans. In fact, it was actually an intense deterioration of environmental conditions caused by extreme changes in the climate.
Look at that, for once us humans weren’t to blame for destroying the environment!
