Tag Archives: australia

The moon is a big deal again. NASA is currently working toward a return to the lunar surface with the Artemis program and the (heavily delayed) Space Launch System rocket. Recently, the Australian Space Agency announced it would cooperate with NASA to send a rover to the moon in 2026, …

Scientists have described a new species of the crayfish genus Cherax from the Murray-Darling Basin in eastern Australia. The swamp yabby (Cherax latimanus). Image credit: McCormack & Raadik, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5026.3.2. Cherax is the most widespread genus of fully aquatic crayfish in the southern hemisphere. Commonly known as yabbies, members of …

A new genus and species of extinct predatory bird has been identified from a fossilized partial skeleton unearthed in South Australia. Life reconstruction of Archaehierax sylvestris. Image credit: Jacob Blokland / Taylor & Francis Online. The newly-identified bird species lived during the Late Oligocene epoch approximately 25 million years ago. …

Until now, the first fossil evidence of land plants was from the Devonian period (420 million years ago). However, molecular evidence suggests an earlier origin in the Cambrian period. In a new paper in the journal Science, paleontologists described an assemblage of spore-like microfossils from Early Ordivician (480 million years …

A 2-m- (6.6-foot) long painting of a kangaroo in a rock shelter in the north-eastern Kimberley region of Western Australia is dated to between 17,500 and 17,100 years on the basis of the ages of three overlying and three underlying wasp nests. Traditional Owner Ian Waina inspecting a naturalistic painting of …

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A new genus and species of prehistoric crocodile, Paludirex vincenti, has been identified from fossils unearthed in Queensland, Australia. Paludirex vincenti belongs to Mekosuchinae, an extinct subfamily of crocodylids from Australia and the South Pacific. Image credit: University of Queensland. Paludirex vincenti roamed Earth during the Pliocene epoch, between 5 …

Giant Wombat-Like Marsupials Roamed Australia 25 Million Years Ago Paleontologists have identified a giant wombat-like marsupial that lived 25 million years ago (Oligocene epoch) in what is now Australia. Named Mukupirna nambensis, the prehistoric creature was at least five times larger than living wombats and so different that the researchers …

New evidence indicates the primary cause of megafaunal extinction in Australia 45,000 years ago was likely a result of humans, not climate change. A paper on the subject is published in the journal Nature Communications. A range of now extinct megafauna that was present when humans first arrived in Australia. …

A new genus and species of sauropod dinosaur from the mid-Cretaceous has been discovered in western Queensland, Australia. Savannasaurus elliottorum. Image credit: Travis R. Tischler. The plant-eating sauropod dinosaur is called Savannasaurus elliottorum, and is thought to have lived about 95 million years ago. A member of the sauropod subgroup …