World History
Mega-marsupials once roamed Australia. CNN has this interesting story on Australian pre-history. Up to fifty thousand years ago, Australia had megafauna. Of course, humans get the blame for their vanishing.
The article notes, "Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by arriving humans, scientists said on Thursday. The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves."
Can you imagine a rhino sized wombat? I hope they were better spirited than the rhinos are known to be. Yikes...
Many of these giants died when they fell into the caves where their fossils were discovered. Expedition leader Gavin Prideaux in a new issue of Nature said, "Unwary animals bounding around in the case of kangaroos, or running around in the case of marsupial lions and wombats, fell down these holes, as presumably most were nocturnal. It's very difficult to see a small opening on a flat surface at night."
The Australian megafauna died out shortly after the arrival of humans. The humans used fire-stick farming where lands were deliberately cleared by fires to encourage re-growth. This wrecked havoc on the ecosystem and the big animals on the top died out.
Maybe there is a lost world out there in the Australian Outback. Perhaps a giant Wombat survives alongside the Yowie...
- European Discovery And The Colonisation Of Australia
The European Discovery and the Colonisation of Australia is a nice essay on the beginning of European history in Australia. The site was created and is maintained by the Australian government. From the site: The first records of European mariners sailing...
- Fun Facts About Australia
I found this fun short article at ezinearticles.com. As the site allows for the reproduction of articles by blogs and other websites, I am going to go ahead and reprint it here. The author of the article is Beverly P. Frank. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
- Ancient Tools Unearthed In Australia
Humanity has been is Australia a long time. And a new find proves that humans were thriving there 35,000 years ago! Yahoo! has a story on it titled Ancient tools unearthed in Australia. The article notes, "Tools dating back at least 35,000 years have...
- Teaching About Australia
Teaching about Australia. This is a good essay on how teachers in the USA can teach students about Australia. This includes ideas for history. From the site: At the high school level, history and social science courses offer many opportunities for...
- History Of The World
History of the World This is a short essay which tries to sum it all up! From the site: This is my attempt to put up a decent essay on world history with some of my favorite history links. My name is Jeff Coons and I am a history teacher in Perryburg,...
World History
Mega-marsupials once roamed Australia
Mega-marsupials once roamed Australia. CNN has this interesting story on Australian pre-history. Up to fifty thousand years ago, Australia had megafauna. Of course, humans get the blame for their vanishing.The article notes, "Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by arriving humans, scientists said on Thursday. The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves."
Can you imagine a rhino sized wombat? I hope they were better spirited than the rhinos are known to be. Yikes...
Many of these giants died when they fell into the caves where their fossils were discovered. Expedition leader Gavin Prideaux in a new issue of Nature said, "Unwary animals bounding around in the case of kangaroos, or running around in the case of marsupial lions and wombats, fell down these holes, as presumably most were nocturnal. It's very difficult to see a small opening on a flat surface at night."
The Australian megafauna died out shortly after the arrival of humans. The humans used fire-stick farming where lands were deliberately cleared by fires to encourage re-growth. This wrecked havoc on the ecosystem and the big animals on the top died out.
Maybe there is a lost world out there in the Australian Outback. Perhaps a giant Wombat survives alongside the Yowie...
- European Discovery And The Colonisation Of Australia
The European Discovery and the Colonisation of Australia is a nice essay on the beginning of European history in Australia. The site was created and is maintained by the Australian government. From the site: The first records of European mariners sailing...
- Fun Facts About Australia
I found this fun short article at ezinearticles.com. As the site allows for the reproduction of articles by blogs and other websites, I am going to go ahead and reprint it here. The author of the article is Beverly P. Frank. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
- Ancient Tools Unearthed In Australia
Humanity has been is Australia a long time. And a new find proves that humans were thriving there 35,000 years ago! Yahoo! has a story on it titled Ancient tools unearthed in Australia. The article notes, "Tools dating back at least 35,000 years have...
- Teaching About Australia
Teaching about Australia. This is a good essay on how teachers in the USA can teach students about Australia. This includes ideas for history. From the site: At the high school level, history and social science courses offer many opportunities for...
- History Of The World
History of the World This is a short essay which tries to sum it all up! From the site: This is my attempt to put up a decent essay on world history with some of my favorite history links. My name is Jeff Coons and I am a history teacher in Perryburg,...