4 million years ago - the beginning of modern Australia
About Bluff Downs
Bluff Downs is located in north Queensland. Around four million years ago it was a wetland area, similar to the Kakadu wetlands of today. The remains of animals that lived and died in and around the water were buried in the sticky mud and preserved. Fossils from this area include strange relics from ancient times as well as the ancestors of modern day animals.
Significant fossils from Bluff Downs
Fossils from Bluff Downs show an important trend that was occurring at this time -animals were becoming very large. One of the biggest animals found at Bluff Downs is the Bluff Downs Giant Python (Liasis sp.), at 10m long the largest snake ever to live on this continent. Other giants from Bluff Downs include potential prey for the giant python - the hippo-sized, wombat-like diprotodontoid Euryzygoma dunense.
Fossils of the ancestors of modern animals including marsupial carnivores, kangaroos, wombats and bandicoots are also found at Bluff Downs.
The skull of the giant Pliocene herbivore Euryzygoma with its unusual protruding cheek bones (left) and a molar tooth of the mysterious koala-like Koobor (right)
Photos: B Mackness.
Fossil-hunting at Bluff Downs
To get to the fossil-rich layers of soft clay that form the northern bank of the Allingham River, palaeontologists must remove the covering soil. As the fossil bones are carefully removed from the surrounding clay they are hardened with water-soluble glue. Large and fragile fossils are wrapped in protective plaster to make them safe for the trip back to the lab at the University of New South Wales.
Palaeontologists excavate fossil bones from the Bluff Downs quarry.
Photo: © H Godthelp.
