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TOPIC: Jenolan Caves

Blobrana

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Posts: 131433

Date: Jul 6 05:40 2011

Jenolan Caves	Permalink

Scientists in Australia have found the skeleton of a "giant wombat" which lived some two million years ago. The plant-eating marsupial would have been the size of a four-wheel drive car and weighed three tonnes, experts say. Its bones were found on a farm in north-eastern Australia's Queensland state. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: May 21 22:20 2008

Thylacoleo carnifex	Permalink

New evidence at Redbanks Conservation Park near Burra has confirmed that large marsupial lions roamed the area during the Ice Age. When looking at todays native, mostly herbivorous, Australian fauna it is hard to imagine a land where savage meat-eaters roamed, but Thylacoleo carnifex was one of the largest marsupial carnivores to live on the continent. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jul 30 23:16 2007

Diprotodon	Permalink

Scientists in Australia announced Friday they had found the jawbone of a giant wombat the size of a large car that lived 20,000-40,000 years ago. The jawbone of the ancient marsupial, part of the mega-fauna that once roamed pre-historic Australia, was found by a tour guide at the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. The animal, named the diprotodon, was two metres tall and three metres long, weighing about three tonnes. Read more . . __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jul 25 10:31 2006

Jenolan Caves	Permalink

The Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia, have been discovered to be the world's oldest open caves system. Scientists from the CSIRO, the University of Sydney and the Australian Museum dated the limestone caves to be 340 million years old, using clay-dating methods. The technique is a variation of conventional potassium-argon dating methods, which can calculate the age of minerals by measuring levels of decay caused by radioactive potassium. CSIRO developed the technique to help petroleum exploration companies find oil deposits. Location: Latitude:-33.8199 S Longitude: 150.0227 "We've shown that these caves are hundreds of millions of years older than any reported date for an open cave anywhere in the world. Even in geological terms, 340 million years is a very long time. To put it into context, the Blue Mountains began to form 100 million years ago; dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, and Tasmania was joined to the mainland as recently as 10,000 years ago.'' - Dr Armstrong Osborne, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. The study is published in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. __________________

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