Australia's Incredible Extinct Giant Animals

When the indigenous people of Australia first set their feet on the continent of Australia 45,000 years ago, after leaving Africa, travelling via Asia, they entered a land, in which there lived, around 55 giant animal species called mega-fauna. Wombats the size of small cars, 2-metre tall carnivorous kangaroos and 5-metre long snakes, were just a few of the inhabitants.

There is also fossil evidence of giant penguins, which were about 1.35 metres tall and 90 kilograms in weight. In New Zealand, wing-bone fossils have been found of similar penguin-like birds, which indicate that they may have been as tall as a man.

A Giant Bird!

Whole skeletons of huge flightless birds, which were over 3 meters tall, have been found in the Northern Territory. Called Stirton's Thunder Bird, these birds weighed up to 500kg. The birds, however, died out before any humans laid eyes on them.

Stirton's Thunder Bird

A wombat-like animal which shares ancestors with the modern wombat was the largest marsupial that has ever lived. Scientists recently found a mass-grave of 50 skeletons, of these animals, who weighed up to 2.8 tonnes. Also found at the Queensland site, was the fossils of a venomous six-metre lizard called Megalania.

Many specimens of carnivorous marsupial lions have been found in Australia. They were about the size of today's female lions and tigers, but they were actually related to marsupial mammals, like kangaroos, wallabies and possums.

It is believed that mega-fauna evolved as an adaptation to food scarcity and the hostile climate of Australia.


Books To Read


Europe: A Natural History, by Tim Flannery. The first modern humans arrived in Europe 40000 years ago.