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Alcoota Fossil Site
__NOTOC__ The Alcoota Fossil Beds are an important paleontological Lagerstätte in the Northern Territory of Australia located on Alcoota Station in the locality of Anmatjere about north-east of Alice Springs in the Central Australia region. It is notable for the occurrence of well-preserved, rare, Miocene vertebrate fossils, which provide evidence of the evolution of the Northern Territory’s fauna and climate. The Alcoota Fossil Beds are also significant as a research and teaching site for palaeontology students. The Alcoota deposit is a series of intermittently interconnected lakes within a large basin. Evidence suggests that the concentration of fossils is due to a phenomenon called ‘waterhole-tethering’: During dry periods, animals concentrated in the immediate area of the continually shrinking, spring-fed lake, resulting in the death of many animals. The Alcoota and Bullock Creek fossil faunas provide evidence that aridification was in progress in northern Austr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anmatjere, Northern Territory
__NOTOC__ Anmatjere is a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about south of the territory capital of Darwin City, Northern Territory, Darwin. History The locality was named after the former Anmatjere Community Government Council, whose seat was located in the town of Ti-Tree, Northern Territory, Ti Tree. Its boundaries and name were gazetted on 4 April 2007. Governance and demographics Anmatjere is located within the federal division of Division of Lingiari, Lingiari, the territory electoral division of Electoral division of Stuart, Stuart and the local government areas of the Barkly Shire and the Central Desert Region. The 2016 Australian census reports that Anmatjere had 477 people living within its boundaries, of whom 47.3% were male, 52.7% were female and 87.9% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Sites and attractions The following sites located within Anmatjere are listed on the Northern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant taxon, extant members of the order (biology), order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (both members of the family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (both members of the family Gavialidae) as well as other extinct Taxon, taxa. Crocodile Measurement, size, Morphology (biology), morphology, behaviour and ecology differ among species. However, they have many similarities in these areas as well. All crocodiles are semiaquatic and tend to congregate in freshwater habitats such as rivers, lakes, wetlands and sometimes in brackish water and Seawater, saltwater. They are carnivorous animals, feeding mostly on vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, and sometimes on invertebrates such as mol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Fossil Sites
This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there. Many of the entries in this list are considered Lagerstätten (sedimentary deposits that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues). Lagerstätten are indicated by a note () in the noteworthiness column. Fossils may be found either associated with a geological formation or at a single geographic site. Geological formations consist of rock that was deposited during a specific period of time. They usually extend for large areas, and sometimes there are different important sites in which the same formation is exposed. Such sites may have separate entries if they are considered to be more notable than the formation as a whole. In contrast, extensive formations associated with large areas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Territory Heritage Register
The Northern Territory Heritage Register is a heritage register, being a statutory list of places in the Northern Territory of Australia that are protected by the Northern Territory statute, the '' Heritage Act 2011''. The register is maintained by the Northern Territory Heritage Council. Other registers Sites within the Northern Territory are listed on national and international heritage registers such as the following, are not duplicated in the Northern Territory Heritage Register: * UNESCO World Heritage list * Australian National Heritage list * Commonwealth Heritage list The Commonwealth Heritage List is a heritage register established in 2003, which lists places under the control of the Australian government, on land or in waters directly owned by the Crown (in Australia, the Crown in right of the Commonwealt ... * Australian National Shipwreck database See also * National Trust of Australia (Northern Territory) * Historical Society of the Northern Territory Ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phalangeriformes
Phalangeriformes is a paraphyletic suborder of about 70 species of small to medium-sized arboreal locomotion, arboreal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi. The species are commonly known as possums, opossums, gliders, and cuscus. The common name "(o)possum" for various Phalangeriformes species derives from the creatures' resemblance to the opossums of the Americas (the term comes from Powhatan language ''aposoum'' "white animal", from proto-Algonquian language, Proto-Algonquian *''wa·p-aʔɬemwa'' "white dog"). However, although opossums are also marsupials, Australasian possums are more closely related to other Australidelphia, Australasian marsupials such as kangaroos. Phalangeriformes are quadrupedalism, quadrupedal Diprotodontia, diprotodont marsupials with long tails. The smallest species, indeed the smallest diprotodont marsupial, is the Tasmanian pygmy possum, with an adult head-body length of and a weight of . The largest are the two species of be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago to the east and Seram and Halmahera to the west. Etymology The bandicoot is a member of the order Peramelemorphia, and the word "bandicoot" is often used informally to refer to any peramelemorph, such as the bilby. The term originally referred to the unrelated Indian bandicoot rat from the Telugu word ''pandikokku'' (పందికొక్కు) wherein ''pandi'' means pig and ''kokku'' means rat. Characteristics Bandicoots have V-shaped faces, ending with their prominent noses similar to proboscides. These noses make them, along with bilbies, similar in appearance to elephant shrews and extinct leptictids, and they are distantly related to both mammal groups. With their well-attuned snouts and sharp claws, bandicoots are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kangaroo
Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo. Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia and New Guinea. The Australian government estimates that 42.8 million kangaroos lived within the commercial harvest areas of Australia in 2019, down from 53.2 million in 2013. As with the terms " wallaroo" and "wallaby", "kangaroo" refers to a paraphyletic grouping of species. All three terms refer to members of the same taxonomic family, Macropodidae, and are distinguished according to size. The largest species in the family are called "kangaroos" and the smallest are generally called "wallabies". The term "wallaroos" refers to species of an intermediate size. There are also the tree-kangaroos, another type of macropod which inhabit the upper branches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyramios
''Pyramios'' is an extinct genus of diprotodont from the Miocene of Australia. It was very large, reaching a length of about 2.5 m (8.2 feet) and a height of about 1.5 m (4.92 feet). ''Pyramios'' is estimated to have weighed 700 kg (1102-1543 pounds). It was comparable in size to its cousin ''Diprotodon ''Diprotodon'' (Ancient Greek: "two protruding front teeth") is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia containing one species, ''D. optatum''. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago but most speci ...'', which is also in the family Diprotodontidae. References * Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution by John A. Long, Michael Archer, Timothy Flannery, and Suzanne Hand (page 16) ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palorchestes
''Palorchestes'' ("ancient leaper") is an extinct genus of large terrestrial, herbivorous Australian marsupial of the family Palorchestidae, living from the Miocene through to the Late Pleistocene. Like other palorchestids, it had highly retracted nasal region suggesting that it had a prehensile lip, as well as highly unusual clawed forelimbs that were used to grasp vegetation. Taxonomy The generic name was coined in 1873 by anatomist Richard Owen, who first found what he thought was the fragmentary jaw of a prehistoric kangaroo and derived the name from ancient Greek terms for "ancient" and "leaper". Despite Owen explicitly stating the etymology of the name in his description, palaeontologist Harold Fletcher published a translation as "the ancient dancer" in 1945. When more postcranial elements were found, ''Palorchestes'' was realized as not a macropod, but a diprotodontid. Owen's description as a giant kangaroo was revised in 1958 by Jack T. Woods of the Queensland Museum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo
''Wakaleo'' (Diyari ''waka'', "little", "small"; and Latin ''leo'', "lion") is an extinct genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the Late Oligocene and Miocene Epochs. Taxonomy ''Wakaleo'' was erected in 1974 by W. A. Clemens and M. Plane. Five species are known: *''Wakaleo alcootaensis'' was found in the Miocene Waite Formation in the Northern Territory in 1974. It was slightly larger than the other two species. *''Wakaleo oldfieldi'' was found by a group of scientists working in the Miocene Wipijiri Formation in southern Australia in 1971. They found a nearly complete left dentary which included a few well-preserved teeth. *''Wakaleo pitikantensis'' described by Rauscher as the type species of the genus ''Priscileo'' in 1987B. Rauscher. 1987. Priscileo pitikantensis, a new genus and species of thylacoleonid marsupial (Marsupialia: Thylacoleonidae) from the Miocene Etaduma formation, South Australia. ''Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacinus Potens
''Thylacinus potens'' ("powerful pouched animal") was the largest species of the family Thylacinidae, originally known from a single poorly preserved fossil discovered by Michael O. Woodburne in 1967 in a Late Miocene locality near Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It preceded the most recent species of thylacine by 4–6 million years, and was 5% bigger, was more robust and had a shorter, broader skull. Its size is estimated to be similar to that of a grey wolf; the head and body together were around 5 feet long, and its teeth were less adapted for shearing compared to those of the now-extinct thylacine. Taxonomy The description of the species was published in 1967, the author Michael O. Woodburne distinguishing the new thylacine with the epithet ''potens'' for what he interpreted as a "powerful" predator. The evidence for the species emerged from geological and palaeontological research into the fossil fauna of the Alcoota site. Description A larger species of ''Thylacinus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ilbandornis Woodburnei
''Ilbandornis'' was a genus of ostrich-sized dromornithid, a clade known casually as "demon ducks" because they are most closely related to the water fowl clade anseriformes. It was far more lightly built than other members of the family, indicating a more cursorial lifestyle; it was a fast runner. The majority of researchers consider Dromornithids to be herbivorous; this is borne out by molecular analysis of the gastroliths and eggshells of both ''Ilbandornis'' and the related ''Genyornis''. While ''Ilbandornis'' and ''Genyornis'' have skulls of similar size to emus, other Dromornithids such as ''Dromornis'' have far more robust skulls with large beaks; these were previously considered an adaptation for carnivory, but their blunt edges and lack of hooked tip indicate that the species were herbivorous. It is therefore likely that the differences in skull shape are due to differences in diet. Ilbandornis went extinct sometime in the Miocene epoch. Taxonomy Two species named by Patri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
