8 million years ago - the drying of Australia
Australia's late Miocene fact file
Position
- Australia was isolated from other landmasses but its northern edge had collided with groups of islands in South East Asia.
Climate
- From the middle Miocene, as polar ice sheets rapidly began to grow in Antarctica, Australia became progressively drier.
Setting
- In the late Miocene, sea-levels dropped. In southern Australia, the Nullarbor Plain - once the limestone bottom of an ancient sea - was exposed.
Vegetation
- Rainforests retreated to the wetter coastal areas of Australia. Open forests and woodlands were spreading in the drier inland areas.
Brigalow forest.
Photo: S Humphreys © Australian Museum.
Animals
- Great herds of large wombat-like marsupials roamed Australia - some had even developed trunks.
- A new group of kangaroos that hopped began to dominate over their slower four-footed walking relatives.
- Gigantic thunder birds ruled the Australian roost.
- The fiercest predators included powerful flesh-eating marsupials called thylacines and lioness-sized marsupial lions.
What was happening in the rest of the world
- Grasslands were spreading in Africa, Asia and North America.
- Ancestral forms of apes lived in Africa, Europe and Asia.
- Like Australia, South America had many marsupial groups, including the ancestors of sabre-toothed marsupials.
