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Study: Komodo dragon native of Australia
Brisbane, Australia (UPI) Oct 1, 2009 Australian, Malaysian and Indonesian scientists say they've determined the world's largest living lizard species, the Komodo Dragon, is an Australian native. The research by paleontologists and archaeologists who studied fossil evidence from Australia, Timor, Flores, Java and India, shows Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis) most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to Indonesia. "The fossil record shows that over the last four million years Australia has been home to the world's largest lizards, including a five-meter giant called Megalania (Varanus prisca)," Scott Hocknull of the Queensland Museum said. "Now we can say Australia was also the birthplace of the three-meter Komodo dragon, dispelling the long-held scientific hypothesis that it evolved from a smaller ancestor in isolation on the Indonesian islands. "Over the past three years, we've unearthed numerous fossils from eastern Australia dated from 300,000 years ago to approximately four million years ago that we now know to be the Komodo dragon. When we compared these fossils to the bones of present-day Komodo dragons, they were identical," he added. The study is reported in the online journal PLoS One. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Tourist faeces 'killed off rare Ayers Rock shrimp': report Sydney (AFP) Sept 29, 2009 Tourists may have killed off a rare species of shrimp by relieving themselves on Australia's iconic Uluru, or Ayers Rock, a report said on Tuesday. Biologist Brian Timms said his research had showed one species of small inland shrimp living in pools atop the monolith had become extinct while another had thrived. "The people going up the rock somehow have affected the animals which live ... read more |
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