The
extinct megafauna
of Australia
were about 30% larger than their living relatives.
They weren't quite as large as mammoths and dinosaurs, but by
Australian standards they definitely were very large.
There were the giant monotremes such as huge platypus and echidna the
size of a sheep.
The largest group was marsupials, and it included diprotodon (a wombat
like animal size of a hippopotamus), marsupial tapir (cattle sized),
giant kangaroos (three metres tall), giant wallabies, giant koalas,
Tasmanian
tigers, marsupial lions
and three-metre carnivorous rat
kangaroos.
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There were also giant birds such as a 500-kg thunderbird, a 250-kg
duck, and giant waterfowl.
Reptiles included 2.5 metre turtles, seven metre carnivorous goannas,
seven metre terrestrial crocodiles, and the largest Australian snakes
ever known.
All went extinct quite suddenly during Pleistocene, between about
45,000 years ago.
The cause is an ongoing discussion between human causes and climate
change, however the climate change at the time was no more extreme than
many before that the mega fauna had survivied; while the timing of the
extinction very
obviously coincides with the arrival of the first humans in Australia.
A combination of hunting and landscape burning has been suggested to be
the cause.
Note:
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British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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