Australia’s First Humans Coexisted with Giant Lizards, Say Scientists

Today, the scientists note, the biggest lizard in Australia is the perentie, which maxes out at about 6.5 feet long.

“The find is pretty significant, especially for the timeframe that it dates”, he says.

In a latest study, the researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered an evidence that “giant killer lizards” used to walk on the Australian land almost 50,000 years ago.

“The new monitor fossil is, minimally, 30,000 years younger than the previous youngest reliably dated record for giant lizards in Australia and for the first time, demonstrates that on a continental scale, humans and giant lizards overlapped in time”, they said. Experts said the discovery is the earliest record of the lizard in Australia.

Price adds that it still undetermined whether the bone comes from a Komodo dragon which roamed Australia before or it could also be a larger species such as the Megalania monitor lizard that weighs about 500 kilograms and measures up to six meters long.

“Our jaws dropped when we found a tiny fossil from a giant lizard during a two meter deep excavation in one of the Capricorn Caves, near Rockhampton”, said Price, in a statement. “Humans can only now be considered as potential drivers of their extinction”.

The Megalania lizard (illustrated) weighed around 78 stone (500kg) and grew up to 20ft (6 metres long).

Dr. Price discovered the bone at Capricorn Caves, a site known for being extremely rich in fossils from a wide variety of species.

Price said scientists could only hypothesise how the giant lizard bone made its way inside the cave, which contains bones of many rodents regurgitated by owls.

A team of volunteers helped with the research by sorting and sieving specimens. The manager of Capricorn Caves, Ann Augusteyn, takes great care with her team to ensure the caves are left undisturbed for the purposes of research.

According to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald, researchers from the University of Queensland have found evidence that some of the earliest inhabitants of the continent likely had to go about their business watching out for massive predatory lizards, some of which weighed up to half a ton. It also supported by Capricorn Caves, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Institute for Nuclear Science.