Scott Hocknull – The Conversation

Fossil rock wallaby teeth from Mount Etna Caves and a portrait of a modern yellow-footed rock wallaby. Chris Laurikainen Gaete

January 11, 2026

Modern rock wallabies seem to survive by sticking together in small areas. Fossils show they need to travel

Christopher Laurikainen Gaete, University of Wollongong; Anthony Dosseto, University of Wollongong, and Scott Hocknull, CQUniversity Australia

Today, rock wallabies rarely stray far from the safety of their rocky shelters. But the fossil record tells a very different story.

Chris Laurikainen Gaete

April 23, 2025

Fossil teeth show extinct giant kangaroos spent their lives close to home – and perished when the climate changed

Christopher Laurikainen Gaete, University of Wollongong; Anthony Dosseto, University of Wollongong; Lee Arnold, University of Wollongong, and Scott Hocknull, The University of Melbourne

Australia’s giant Protemnodon kangaroos didn’t die out everywhere at the same time. Instead, extinction proceeded one habitat at a time.

Vlad Konstantinov, Scott Hocknull, Eromanga Natural History Museum

June 7, 2021

Introducing Australotitan: Australia’s largest dinosaur yet spanned the length of 2 buses

Scott Hocknull, The University of Melbourne and Róchelle A Lawrence

Australotitan was a massive long-necked sauropod estimated to weigh the equivalent of 1,400 red kangaroos.

Life and death in tropical Australia, 40,000 years ago. Giant reptiles ruled northern Australia during the Pleistocene with mega-marsupials as their prey. Image Credit: R. Bargiel, V. Konstantinov, A. Atuchin & S. Hocknull (2020). Queensland Museum.

May 18, 2020

Humans coexisted with three‑tonne marsupials and lizards as long as cars in ancient Australia

Scott Hocknull, The University of Melbourne; Anthony Dosseto, University of Wollongong; Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland; Lee Arnold, University of Adelaide; Patrick Moss, The University of Queensland, and Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University

These megafauna were the largest land animals to live in Australia since the time of the dinosaurs.

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