A fossil discovery of an ancient relative of the Australian magpie which lived in New Zealand some 19 million years ago challenges the understanding of ‘native’ species.
- Associate Professor in Vertebrate Palaeontology, Flinders University
A recent find of an ancient giant bird’s skull has revealed much about its life among the vanished lakes and wetlands of inland South Australia.
New fossils reveal Australia was once home to a much greater diversity of huge eagles and vultures, which died off alongside ‘giant wombats’ and ‘marsupial lions’.
At twice the size of a wedge-tailed eagle, the newly discovered Dynatoaetus gaffae would have competed with thylacines and Tasmanian devils for prey.
Genyornis newtoni was one of the biggest birds ever to walk the earth. And new research shows its mysterious extinction may have come amid a bout of widespread bone disease as its lake home dried out.
Archaehierax sylvestris, whose remains have been unearthed in the arid South Australian outback, was the apex predator in a lush prehistoric forest filled with marsupials and waterfowl.
The newly discovered Heracles inexpectatus stood nearly a metre tall. And its fossil bones sat undiscovered on a museum shelf for more than a decade before its hefty status was finally appreciated.
Australia was once home to giant fightless birds - much bigger than today’s emus and cassawories. But where did they come from, and where did they go?
Large birds once lived across Australia, only to become extinct around the time that giant marsupials and other megafauna died out during the Pleistocene “ice ages”.
The Nullarbor is an arid, treeless expanse today. But several hundred thousand years ago it was home to a menagerie of species, including two newly discovered giant cuckoo-like birds.
Our entire knowledge of one of Australia’s extinct ancient giant birds is flawed because experts have been looking at remnants of the wrong egg the whole time.
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