Having special foot adaptations helped these sizeable animals wander long distances, which meant a better chance to find plentiful food and water.
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Articles on Megafauna
Displaying 1 - 20 of 65 articles
Africa’s mammals are a global treasure that must be protected.
A puzzle over the identity of an extinct bird that laid eggs across Australia has been solved.
80,000 years ago, Australia’s landscape was dominated by much larger versions of today’s marsupials – including enigmatic and enormous wombats.
Polar bears and wolves may get the glory, but small predators like weasels, foxes and their cousins play outsized ecological roles. And many of these species are declining fast.
Our work provides new evidence against the theory that people living in Sahul drove the megafauna extinction.
The findings will help us better understand how biodiversity responds to a changing climate over time.
A peculiar giant kangaroo that once lived in New Guinea would have descended from a much more ancient form that migrated from Australia, between 5 million and 8 million years ago.
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.
The famous deaths of moas and dodos has fed a narrative in which humans are agents of extinction for island-dwelling animals. But research suggests this only recently became the case.
Incredibly, once the wells dried up some became nurseries for the germination and establishment of wetland trees.
In Gabon’s Lopé National Park, between 1986 and 2018, there’s been a massive collapse in tree fruiting events.
A new study shows Palorchestes had unique elbows unlike any other mammal, which may have contributed to its extinction.
This newly discovered ancient monk seal is challenging previous theories about how and where monachine seals evolved. It’s the biggest breakthrough in seal evolution research in about 70 years.
Tooth fossils from NSW have confirmed sauropods weren’t exclusive to Queensland. They’re also providing a first look at how these colossal dinosaurs fed from Australia’s land.
Several theories have suggested either humans, climate change or both drove megafauna extinctions in Southeast Asia. Our newest work suggests otherwise.
The extinct Mukupirna - which translates to ‘big bones’ - is estimated to have been more than four times larger than any living wombat.
These megafauna were the largest land animals to live in Australia since the time of the dinosaurs.
The historical record is full of surprises – and it could encourage conservationists to think more creatively.
Overhunting of megafauna such as mammoths may have force us to take up farming, ultimately leading to modern society
Top contributors
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Associate Professor, Vertebrate Palaeontology Group, Flinders University
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Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Tasmania
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Lecturer in Palaeontology, The University of Queensland
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Deputy Director, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University
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Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
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ARC Laureate Fellow, University of Adelaide
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Associate Professor in Earth Sciences, Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong
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Professor, Flinders University
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Professor, Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
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Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of Technology Sydney and Chief Investigator of ARC Centre for Excellence in Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Technology Sydney
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Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Archaeology, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland
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Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
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Research Fellow in Ecology for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
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Researcher, Flinders University
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Senior Lecturer, Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University
