Australia's Vanished Beasts
- By Peter Tyson
- Posted 05.01.07
- NOVA
The marsupial lion is just one of numerous megafauna, or "big animals," that once lived in Australia. All of them are gone, rendered extinct under still mysterious circumstances sometime after humans first arrived on the continent some 50,000 or 60,000 years ago. In this slide show, see evocative illustrations of some of these extinct wonders as they might have appeared when alive, and find out what made them stand out.
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A 25-foot lizard. A carnivorous kangaroo. See these and other extinct animals.
Peter Tyson is editor in chief of NOVA Online.
Credits
Image Credits
- (illustrations)
- by Frank Knight originally for Kadimakara: Extinct Vertebrates of Australia, P. V. Rich and G. F. van Tets, editors (Pioneer Design Studio, Melbourne, Australia, 1985, and Princeton University Press, 1991), used with permission of the copyright holders, P. V. Rich and F. Knight
Related Links
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Australia: First 4 Billion Years
One of the strangest landscapes on Earth reveals our planet's complex history.
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Bone Diggers
Deep in an Australian cave, paleontologists discover fossils of extinct giant animals.
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Evolution Down Under
How did Australia come to be marsupial heaven?
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The Extinction Enigma
Who or what killed off Australia's biggest creatures 45,000 years ago?
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