Are there any good displays of Australian Pleistocene megafauna fossils?

[DavidBrown]

A query for Australian Zoochatters:

Are there any Australian natural history museums, zoos, or fossil sites that have good public displays of Pleistocene Australian megfauna species fossils like the giant varanid Megalania, the "marsupial leopard", or Diprotodons?

The Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo has life-size recreations of several of the megafauna species that lived in California (mammoths, ground sloth, American lion, etc.) and that got me wondering if any Australian zoos or museums have similar life-size reconstructions of the spectacular Australian Pleistocene megafauna? That would be a sight to behold.

Thanks.

 

[Chlidonias]

the Australian Museum in Sydney has (or had?) a display of life-like reconstructions of some megafauna such as Diprotodon (e.g. Diprotodon reconstruction - Australian Museum) and likewise for the Queensland Museum in Brisbane (e.g. a reconstruction of a Megalania skeleton, etc; they also have a wall covered in life-size outlines of big animals including Diprotodon). I haven't been to either for a long time though. I have a magazine somewhere (probably an Australian Geographic) which has a photo of a life-size model of a Megalania but I can't remember where it is displayed.

 

[DavidBrown]

the Australian Museum in Sydney has (or had?) a display of life-like reconstructions of some megafauna such as Diprotodon (e.g. Diprotodon reconstruction - Australian Museum) and likewise for the Queensland Museum in Brisbane (e.g. a reconstruction of a Megalania skeleton, etc; they also have a wall covered in life-size outlines of big animals including Diprotodon). I haven't been to either for a long time though. I have a magazine somewhere (probably an Australian Geographic) which has a photo of a life-size model of a Megalania but I can't remember where it is displayed.

Thanks much Chlidonias. That Diprotodon reconstruction is quite impressive.

 

[Hix]

The Australian Museum has many reconstructions of Diprotodon, Palorchestes, Thylacoleo and the smaller Wakaleo, plus a Megalania and Montypythonoides. Like Chlidonias, I haven't been for a while, but the Dreamtime to Dust exhibition used to be a permanent feature.



Hix

 

[CGSwans]

There are also a lot of fossils and life-size reconstructions on display at the Womambi Fossil Centre at Naracoorte Caves, the World Heritage listed site in South Australia that is probably the most significant site for Australian megafauna fossils.

 

[Lyrebird]

Riversleigh Fossil Centre in Mt Isa QLD has impressive dioramas of many Aussie megafauna, from Wonambi and Megalania to Giant Koalas and Procoptodon and many in between. Very detailed work by 'natureworks'.

 

[DavidBrown]

Thanks everybody. This is great information. I would love to get over there and see the cave sites and the museums someday.

It is very sad that we can't experience these critters live, although with DNA cloning technology developing the way it is, who knows....

Thanks again for the information.

David

 

[Chlidonias]

speaking of Megalania prisca (or Varanus priscus if one prefers) there's fairly recent research that suggests that the Komodo dragon didn't evolve in the Lesser Sundas but in Australia and spread north-westwards into the Lesser Sundas (meaning that the extant population is actually a relict one), and that both Megalania and the Komodo dragon inhabited Australia concurrently. Some have suggested that Komodo dragons should be introduced to the wild in Australia to try and redress the balance. (Not sure how Australian locals would feel about that though!)

(Should I mention the accounts in cryptozoological tomes of giant monitors still being seen in northern Australia?)

 

[Jet]

As people are saying, there are actually quite a few on display around the country but not sure there is a comprehensive collection in the one place, but I did see a travelling exhibit a few years ago that had just about everything. As well as others that people have mentioned, Melbourne Museum is also quite good, with Diprotodon and Megalania skeleton casts. There used to be a really good Diprotodon display at the National Museum in Canberra but I heard it's gone (to storage or elsewhere I'm not sure?) to make way for a new exhibit. The National Museum has a really good Thylacine display with a real Thylacine skin and fully preserved wet specimen.

 

[CGSwans]

Some have suggested that Komodo dragons should be introduced to the wild in Australia to try and redress the balance. (Not sure how Australian locals would feel about that though!)

I'm a fan of this concept in principle. Very much in favour of re-introducing Tassie devils to southern Australia where dingoes have been mostly extirpated, for instance. But this is just ridiculous. There are seven or eight other large goanna species from the same sub-genus as Komodo dragons currently surviving and thriving in Australia. What extant niche would Komodos fill here? The megafauna that Megalania hunted is as extinct as Megalania itself.

 

[Chlidonias]

I'm a fan of this concept in principle. Very much in favour of re-introducing Tassie devils to southern Australia where dingoes have been mostly extirpated, for instance. But this is just ridiculous. There are seven or eight other large goanna species from the same sub-genus as Komodo dragons currently surviving and thriving in Australia. What extant niche would Komodos fill here? The megafauna that Megalania hunted is as extinct as Megalania itself.

I haven't got the articles I was reading to hand (they'll be on the 'net somewhere I'm sure), but as I recall the argument was to do with the number of substitute "megafauna" now in northern Australia, such as water buffalo and pigs, which would provide food; and there was probably something about creating a much larger global population of Komodo dragons (thereby fulfilling a conservation aspect as well, at least from the Komodo dragons' point of view if not for that of the kangaroos').

None of the extant Australian monitors come anywhere near close to filling a Komodo dragon type niche.

 

[Jet]

I wonder how they'd go eating cane toads in NT and the Kimberley? Also, I know this is in bad taste, but I just thought of a future potential court case in NT that starts in a campsite and a cry of "A Komodo Dragon took my baby"

 

[Hix]

There is also a Dinosaur Museum at Gold Creek, a northern suburb of Canberra.

It is very sad that we can't experience these critters live, although with DNA cloning technology developing the way it is, who knows....

Will never happen. There is no DNA in rock.



Hix

 

[DavidBrown]

There is also a Dinosaur Museum at Gold Creek, a northern suburb of Canberra.



Will never happen. There is no DNA in rock.



Hix

Yes, you are right of course, but I thought that some of these were subfossils that might still have some DNA? I know this is the case with some of the giant lemurs and moas found in caves in Madagascar and New Zealand.

 

[Chlidonias]

Yes, you are right of course, but I thought that some of these were subfossils that might still have some DNA? I know this is the case with some of the giant lemurs and moas found in caves in Madagascar and New Zealand.

humans have been in NZ for less than 1000 years and Madagascar for less than 2000 years. Australia has been occupied by humans for 60,000 years plus. Most of the megafauna died out in Australia a very long time ago; I don't know of any subfossil megafaunal remains off the top of my head, certainly none containing preserved soft material.

 

[DavidBrown]

humans have been in NZ for less than 1000 years and Madagascar for less than 2000 years. Australia has been occupied by humans for 60,000 years plus. Most of the megafauna died out in Australia a very long time ago; I don't know of any subfossil megafaunal remains off the top of my head, certainly none containing preserved soft material.

It seems like short of a time machine we'll never really see the fantastic megafauna that lived in your continent and much of the rest of the world.

I guess that the best that we can do is try and conserve what megafauna we have left and celebrate that which is no longer with us in museums.

Thanks to all for the information on Australian megafauna exhibits. I hope to visit these places some day.