Massive Aussie megafauna deposit found, according to articles in news@nature 24 Jan 2007, Nature, vol. 445, p422, and ABC News in Science 25 Jan 2007. Researchers in Museums and Universities all over Australia have been studying a “treasure trove of fossils” discovered in 2002 in caves in the Nullarbor Plain – a vast arid region in southern Australia. The fossils include giant kangaroos, tree kangaroos, giant wombats, thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers) and a tree climbing lion-like carnivore named “Thylacoleo”. All the giant animals and many other marsupials are now extinct, and there is ongoing debate as to whether climate change or human activity caused their disappearance. Gavin Prideaux of the Western Australian Museum and colleagues analysed the carbon and oxygen isotope in some kangaroo and wombat teeth from the cave fauna and concluded the climate was similar to today’s climate and the megafauna must have been adapted to an arid environment. However, Prideaux commented to news@nature, “There’s no way you could have such a high diversity of herbivores living on a few saltbushes and grasses.” The research team sum up their findings as: “The diverse herbivore assemblage implies substantially greater floristic diversity than that of the modern shrub steppe, but all other faunal and stable-isotope data indicate that the climate was very similar to today.”
Editorial Comment: Prideaux is right about a large diversity of giant animals not being able to survive in the current environment of the Nullarbor Plain. This Nullabor area of Australia was named because it is almost treeless (Null – none, Arbor – tree) and the vegetation is sparse and not very nutritious. Present day tree kangaroos are only found in rainforests, and a giant tree climbing carnivore would need some big trees and an abundance of prey to survive. These fossils are more consistent with the view that the Australian climate has degenerated and such decline began long before the motor car, the industrial revolution and the farming of flatulent dairy cows.
The biblical account records that ever since Noah’s flood the whole world has been drying out. This undoubtedly was one factor in the demise of large creatures. As post flood humans spread out over the world they began to hunt large animals and also contributed to the extinction of the megafauna. Note that none of these changes are evolution. Extinction and decrease in animal size are the opposite of evolution, but exactly what you would expect from the Biblical history of the world. (Ref. Global warming, climate change, giants)
Evidence News 9th February 2007