Genyornis newtoni right pes

Ah, after the millionth attempt I have been able to upload this thing! We had a hardcore thuderstorm that rattled the entire house. I think that it totally messed with the internet connection. Anyhow, down to business...

This sketch is from Rich and Vicker-Rich's Wildlife of Gondwana. This book has been my constant companion in libraries since I discovered it in Launceston College when I was in Grade 11. It has been invaluable to me because as a lowly student far away from palaeontology central in Sydney, I don't have ready access to specimens. The photography is sooo good! This is a sketch of the right foot of Genyornis newtoni. Here you can see the end point of the evolutionary trends of the dromornithids. I say end point because Genyornis was the last of its lineage, dying out some 26,000-6,000 years ago. Here you can see that the inner digit has been reduced and the increased size of the outer digit. Supposably these were adaptions to a more cursorial lifestyle as the rainforests that once blanketed Australia dried out. Unlike Dromornis stirtoni, Genyornis is more gracile and probably had a better ability to run fast. It also didn't have the massive bill that D. stirtoni.

Personally I believe that G. newtoni had a similar ecological niche to the living emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and fed on plants, seeds and probably invertebrates. This I believe a possibily because the emus that were comtemporaries of G. newtoni were smaller than the emus we see today. This could be due to the fact that the species competed with one another for the same resources meaning that the emus were denied of some food and suffered from a degree of stunted growth.

There are some intriguing tales from some Australian Aboriginal tribes that are suggestive of Genyornis newtoni or some other similar animal in the past. The Tjapwurong people of the Lancefield area of Victoria say that mirhirung paringmal or "Giant Emus" were living in the area when Volcanoes were active in the west. That suggests that they were around 6000 years ago at least. I also came across a legend that coud have come from the Kamilaroi People who inhabit the plains and slopes of north-west New South Wales. There is a place called the Boobera Lagoon which is thought to have once been the abode of Kurrea the rainbow serpent and his descentants are known as the Gowarkees or Gowargays, the "water emu spirits." These are also called "Giant Emus" and were said to have inhabit the swampy country near the dwelling of Baiame the All Father. These birds were black and had red legs. Could this be an ancient memory of Genyornis newtoni passed down the generations?

It would make sense if these were the birds in question. If they inhabited swamps and were more needy of water than emus, perhaps this is the reason why they did not survive to the present day.

Diprotodon optatum

This animal has the distinction of being the largest marsupial known, living or extinct. It weighted well over a ton and was comparable in size to a rhinoceros. The largest specimens are 3 meters long and 2 metres tall at the shoulder. Although they resembled wombats, they are not direct ancestors of them, belonging to a different subfamily; the Diprotodontidae. The Vombatidae, which is the family that modern wombats belong to, have rootless, evergrowing teeth. The Diprotodonids had rooted teeth with lower crowns, designed to browse on more succulent foliage than the roots and grasses that wombats make more use of. The structure f the nasal bones has been the source of much speculation; some think that it may have had a short trunk, others think the nasal bones resemble those of a wombats and it had a nose like theirs. I'll have to judge for myself in the future.

Diprotodon remains have been found in proximity to the Pleistocene deposits of the inland lakes of inland Australia. These creatures were one of many animals that did not make it to the present day; probably being victims of the drying climate and possibly a change in the vegetation assemblage due to the firestick farming practices of the Aboriginals. It is very likely that Diprotodon was known to the earliest people of this land and was the inspiration of the bunyip legends. It became extinct about 30,000 BP.

When I think of Diprotodon, I think of thirst. Imagine a weary lumbering beast approaching his local lake once so fertile, teeming with lungfish and crocodiles. Only to find a hypersaline puddle with salt so concentrated that it burns and cracks the parched soles of their massive feet. These animals were the equivalent of elephants in their time and elephants need to drink every day. Imagine the last drink beside the sparkling gypsum crystals of forboding beauty. Imagine the agonised eyes sunken with starvation and the drawn, gaunt face drawing up the last particles of moisture from the spreading dust of the desert.

Simosthenurus

I think I did this drawing in 2006. I know these things are a bit old now, but I don't have enough time to scan off my later drawings at the moment. I really should be studying but I find this little journal a fulfilling catharsis in my dreary life...

Anyhow, this is a profile of Simosthenurus sp. that I did directly from a photo of a skull that I found in Vickers-Rich and Rich's Wildlife of Gondwana. This book has been a useful companion for me as I don't have good access to specimens. Yes, so I sketched the skull and layered the muscles on as well as I understood it. If you look at it closely, you can still see the outline of the zygomatic arch, teeth, diastema and the end of the nasal bones where they adjoin the rhinarium. It is also possible to view where I have blocked out the temporalis and masseter muscles as well as the whisker pads.

Simosthenurus ("short-nosed strong-tailed beast") was a sthenurine; a member of an extinct lineage of browsing kangaroos. They are characterised by short, deep muzzles, high-crowned molars with complex crenulated enamel, short robust tails and often they only had one well developed toe (digit 4) on their hind feet. Their bones suggest that they were also heavily built, I might enjoy drawing one of these on steroids! They were often quite gigantic, larger than modern kangaroos. Procoptodon goliah could have been up to three metres tall and is the largest kangaroo known. Simosthenurus itself could have weighed about 100 kilograms; larger than any living kangaroo. It is thought that sthenurines were amongst the first macropods to move out into the woodlands that were replacing the rainforests as Australia dried out in response to the Ice Ages. The short jaws probably gave them a stronger bite, allowing them to masticate tougher vegetation and the monodactylism could be a convergence with horses. It might have allowed them to hop around at higher speeds. Both Procoptodon and Simosthenurus lived during the Late Pleistocene; about 1 mya to 500,000 BP.