Australia that everything is trying to kill you.
While that mightbea fun way to scare tourists,
there is no joking about the murderous killer
lizards of the last Ice Age. In fact, we have just
uncovered the irst fossils to show that those huge lizards were
still stalking the bush when the irst people migrated from
South-East Asia to the Australian continent.
Imagine being one of those irst human inhabitants of
Australia. It’s around 50,000 years ago, and you’ve just inished
a most extraordinary sea journey from tropical South-East Asia.
You’ve already said goodbye to your family and friends and are
about to begin life in a foreign southern land where the climate,
landscape, vegetation and animals are completely different.ators of the last ce Age and that image becomes truly terri-
fying.
The biggest mainland carnivorous mammals included a
couple of species of “Tasmanian” devil, as well as the thylacine.
They were fearsome creatures in their own right, but by far the
undisputed top mammalian predator was the marsupial lion
Thylacoleo. This was not a lion at all, but rather a 150 kg pouched
predator more closely related to wombats and koalas.
The crocodiles included not just the salties and freshies of
today but a huge inland beast, the 5-metre long Pallimnarchus.
This ancient crocodile was found in the northern half of the
continent, from the coastal fringes all the way into the water-
courses of the central Lake Eyre basin.20 | APRIL 2016here’sanoldjokeinreferencetothewildlifein
A li h “ hi i i kill ”It’sascarryenouggghimaggeasitis,butthrowintheggiantpred-
f h l I A d h i b l iTThe Ice Age
Lizards of Oz
Credit: Laurie Beirne
GILBERT PRICEA chance finding in a Queensland cave has revealed that giant and dangerous lizards still lived
when the first humans reached Australia.