Until a few thousand years ago , Australia was once home to a vast raiment of tool both large and small . Now , only a pocket-size snapshot rest , but evidence of the giants that once swan still survive . Researchers have been documentingthe footprints of the extinct animals , from Tasmanian tiger to giant wombat , freeze in clip on Kangaroo Island .
keep in the tilt of the coastline are the footprints of those that have gone nonextant in the upstage and not too distant past . The awesome uncovering of countless tracks from over 300 individuals and spanning a whole emcee of species , from marsupial to reptiles , were brought to the attention of scientist in 2011 by Kangaroo Island residents , andhave been study since .
investigator have find the imprints of quolls , for object lesson , which now only cohere on in the mainland , as well as those of the Tasmanian demon , long restricted to the eponymic island off the southerly coast .
Yet these are not the most challenging prints to have been found on Kangaroo Island . Scientists have also find the tracks of the Tasmanian tiger , or Tasmanian tiger , a creature only of late driven to extinction by humanity in 1936 , though it is thought to have been out on the mainland thousands of years to begin with than this .
Going further back in metre still , and the most spectacular discoveries are probably those of footprints made by some of Australia ’s long - extinct megafauna . The southern continent used to be swarm with a whole multifariousness of giant pouched mammal , and at one point , a monolithic Diprotodon must have wandered across the island . Weighing in at 2 tonnes and remain firm 2 meter ( 6.6 invertebrate foot ) tall , they would have looked a piece like a huge wombat .
The squad also discovered footprints from the giant curt - faced kangaroo .
“ This site can provide important information about the Island ’s prehistoric wildlife , its distribution and doings , to support and counterpoint with cadaverous fossil breakthrough , ” explains Dr Aaron Camens , who has been studying the footprints , in astatement . “ In fact , the data collected during this six - year project will both to inform us of behavioural , anatomical and locomotory characteristics not preserved by skeletal fossil , and provide new palaeo - ecological entropy regarding the out Australian megafauna . ”
The research worker will carry on to canvass the mark discover on the island and dig into the unearthly and wonderful zoological past of Australia ,
