Diprotodon

A new virtual museum reveals 600 million years of Australian fossils in unprecedented 3D detail

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 1, 2023

It combines aspects of geology with biology and many other scientific disciplines.

Key Points: 
  • It combines aspects of geology with biology and many other scientific disciplines.
  • Precise scans of the internal and external features of fossils let us see them in new ways.
  • At the new Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology, we offer free access to 600 million years of digital Australian fossils, from enigmatic early lifeforms to gigantic extinct marsupials.

How do palaeontologists learn about the past?

    • The field of palaeontology was formally solidified into scientific enquiry by people such as Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).
    • Others such as the Scottish geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875) gave us the geological framework through which fossils could be classified and compared.
    • Records of long-extinct animals also survive in the rock art and oral traditions of First Nations peoples.

How to scan a fossil

    • Computed tomography, or CT scanning, uses x-rays to create three-dimensional models of the internal and external features of dense objects.
    • Other imaging methods include photogrammetry, or surface scanning using lasers or projected patterns of light.
    • They also have the advantage of being more portable and can often be taken directly to the fossil.

About the museum

    • We are a group of researchers at Flinders University, working with the South Australian Museum, the Western Australian Museum, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
    • Between us, we have spent many hours scanning, processing and uploading hundreds of three-dimensional virtual models.
    • We have scans of some of the earliest complex life from Ediacaran and Cambrian sites from over 500 million years ago.


    You can explore the VAMP website yourself. All you need to dig into a world of 3D fossil scans is a computer or a smartphone. Alice Clement receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is employed by Flinders University. Aaron Camens works for Flinders University.

These giant 'drop bears' with opposable thumbs once scaled trees in Australia. But how did they grow so huge?

Retrieved on: 
Friday, May 12, 2023

Although long dead, fossil skeletons provide an incredible window into the lifestyle and environment of an extinct animal.

Key Points: 
  • Although long dead, fossil skeletons provide an incredible window into the lifestyle and environment of an extinct animal.
  • What secrets would it reveal about the growth and development of an extinct animal?

Tree-dwelling wombat relatives

    • Nimbadon is now known from its complete skeleton, including material representing developmental ages ranging from tiny pouch-young to mature adults.
    • Its hands and feet had specially adapted opposable thumbs with huge curved claws for climbing, penetrating bark and grasping branches.
    • These animals were highly specialised climbers and lived vastly different lifestyles compared to their closest living relatives – the land-dwelling, burrowing wombats.
    • Read more:
      Meet the giant wombat relative that scratched out a living in Australia 25 million years ago

Sectioning the bones

    • To look inside the fossil bones, we needed to select the right material.
    • Long bones, such as the bones of the leg, are known to preserve a good record of growth, so we analysed ten long bones of several different-sized individuals.
    • Remarkably, even after millions of years of fossilisation, the microscopic structure of the fossil bones had remained intact.

Seasonal growers

    • However, our results indicate that, overall, the limbs of Nimbadon had a much slower, more extenuated growth than kangaroo limbs.
    • Based on these alternating cycles of fast and slow growth, Nimbadon may have been affected by seasonal conditions such as food availability.
    • However, exactly how long it took for eight growth cycles to develop remains a mystery.

Real-life drop bears

    • We have come to think about these strange arboreal marsupials as real versions of the legendary “drop bears” of Australian folklore – mysterious tree-dwelling creatures that would drop down on unsuspecting animals below.
    • Sometimes they would end up in forest floor caves, which is where we have been finding their still-articulated skeletons.
    • Currently we are looking into wear in the enamel microstructure of Nimbadon’s teeth to determine this legendary drop bear’s diet.