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Cuddie Springs
Cuddie Springs is a notable archaeological and paleontological site in the semi-arid zone of central northern New South Wales, Australia, near Carinda in Walgett Shire. Cuddie Springs is an open site, with the fossil deposits preserved in a claypan on the floor of an ancient ephemeral lake. The claypan fills with water after local rainstorms and often takes months to dry, a fact which facilitated the survival of fossils over a long period of time. The site provided the first unequivocal association of stone artefacts with fossil remains of Australian megafauna. Cuddie Springs has been known as a fossil megafauna locality since the late 1870s, when a well was sunk into the centre of the claypan. The Australian Museum launched excavations in 1933 and while many bones were found, no archaeological discoveries were made in that initial research. More extensive excavations were conducted between 1991 and 1996 by a team from the University of New South Wales and were continued betwee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carinda
Carinda is a town in the far north of New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Walgett Shire local government area. In 2016, the town had a population of 158. The name of the town is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'you carry'. History In 1818 John Oxley and George Evans (explorer), George Evans arrived north of Warren, New South Wales, Warren and attempted to travel downstream along the Macquarie River. Unseasonal rains and swollen rivers overflowing into marsh country soon turned them back, lending credence to their conviction that there was an inland sea. For ten years the mystery of the inland sea remained unsolved. When Charles Sturt ventured into the interior in 1828-29 he endeavoured to verify Oxley's findings. However, it became evident that there was no inland sea, and that all the inland rivers did flow into the Darling River. Settlers came into the Carinda District in the mid 1800s, settling along the waterways. Thomas McNamara acquired of land whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreamtime
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis James Gillen, Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague Walter Baldwin Spencer, Baldwin Spencer and thereafter popularised by A. P. Elkin, who, however, later revised his views. The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of ''Everywhen'', during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities. These figures were often distinct from gods, as they did not control the material world and were not worshipped but only reverence (emotion), revered. The concept of the Dreamtime has subsequently become widely adopted beyond its original Australian context and is now part of global popular culture. The term is based on a rendition of the Arandic languages, Arandic word '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flanders Fields
Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in an area straddling the Belgian provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders as well as the French department of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, part of which makes up the area known as French Flanders. Description The name Flanders Fields is particularly associated with battles that took place in the Ypres Salient, including the Second Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Passchendaele. For most of the war, the front line ran continuously from south of Nieuwpoort on the Belgian coast, across Flanders Fields into the centre of Northern France before moving eastwards — and it was known as the Western Front. The phrase was popularized by a poem, "In Flanders Fields", by Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae which was inspired by his service during the Second Battle of Ypres. No-man's-land-flanders-field.jpg, Trenches and No Man's Land at Flanders Fields. See also * Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pallimnarchus
''Paludirex'' (meaning "swamp king") is an extinct genus of mekosuchine crocodylians from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Australia. Remains of this animal have been found in the Riversleigh lagerstätte of northwestern Queensland. It was a medium-sized crocodile, estimated to grow to at least 4 metres in length. Discovery and naming In 1886 Charles Walter De Vis informally described ''Pallimnarchus pollens'' based on fragmentary cranomandibular and osteoderm material discovered around 1860 that was mineralised by apatite. While this marked the first fossil crocodile ever described from Australia, the name was merely coined "out of convenience". Regardless the name came to widespread use with a variety of specimens being referred in addition to the syntype specimens. In 1997 a second species was named by Paul Willis and Ralph Molnar, ''Pallimnarchus gracilis''. Given the fragmentary remains of the material the genus was based on, consisting of eight different pieces most likely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megalania
Megalania (''Varanus priscus'') is an extinct species of giant monitor lizard, part of the megafaunal assemblage that inhabited Australia during the Pleistocene. It is the largest terrestrial lizard known to have existed, reaching an estimated length of 3.5 to 7 metres (11.5 – 23 ft), and weighing between , but the fragmentary nature of known remains make estimates highly uncertain. Megalania is thought to have had a similar ecology to the living Komodo dragon (''Varanus komodoensis''). The youngest fossil remains of giant monitor lizards in Australia date to around 50,000 years ago. The first indigenous settlers of Australia might have encountered megalania, and been a factor in megalania's extinction. While originally megalania was considered to be the only member of the titular genus "''Megalania''", today it is considered a member of the genus ''Varanus'', being closely related to other Australian monitor lizards. Taxonomy Sir Richard Owen described the first known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macropodidae
Macropodidae is a family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and are native to the Australian continent (the mainland and Tasmania), New Guinea and nearby islands. Description Although omnivorous kangaroos lived in the past, modern macropods are herbivorous. Some are browsers, but most are grazers and are equipped with appropriately specialised teeth for cropping and grinding up fibrous plants, in particular grasses and sedges. In general, macropods have a broad, straight row of cutting teeth at the front of the mouth, no canine teeth, and a gap before the molars. The molars are large and, unusually, do not appear all at once but a pair at a time at the back of the mouth as the animal ages, eventually becoming worn down by the tough, abrasive grasses and falling out. Like many Macropodiformes, early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genyornis
''Genyornis newtoni'', also known as thunder bird and mihirung paringmal (meaning "giant bird"), is an extinct species of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch until around 50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. Many other species of Australian megafauna became extinct in Australia around that time, coinciding with the arrival of humans. It is the last known member of the extinct flightless bird family Dromornithidae which had been part of the fauna of the Australian continent for over 30 million years. They are not closely related to ratites such as emus, and their closest living relatives are thought to be fowl. Taxonomy The species was first described in 1896 by Edward Charles Stirling and A. H. C. Zietz, the authors giving the epithet ''newtoni'' for the Cambridge professor Alfred Newton. The name of the genus is derived from ancient Greek terms referring to the lower jaw and a bird. The type spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nototherium
''Nototherium'' ("Southern Beast") is an extinct genus of diprotodontid marsupial from Australia and New Guinea. This mammal had hypsodont molars and weighed around 500kg.Ross D.E. MacPhee, Hans-Dieter Sues, 1999, Extinctions in Near Time, p.251, Springer Science & Business Media It was a relative of the larger ''Diprotodon'' and a distant kin to modern wombats. Species * ''Nototherium inerme'' Owen, 1845 * ''Nototherium watutense'' Anderson, 1937 (formerly considered to be a member of ''Kolopsis ''Kolopsis'' is an extinct genus of diprotodontid marsupials from Australia and Papua New Guinea. It contains three species, although ''K. rotundus'' may be more closely related to other zygomaturines than to ''Kolopsis''. *†''Kolopsis rotu ...'') Plio-Pleistocene, New Guinea. * ''Nototherium mitchelli'' Owen, 1845 Pleistocene, Australia (possibly a junior synonym of ''N. inerme'') References * ''Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient Super ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euowenia
''Euowenia'' is an extinct genus of Diprotodontia which existed from the Pliocene to the upper Pleistocene. Weighing around 500 kg, ''Euowenia'' is only known from three locations on mainland Australia, Chinchilla in Queensland, Menindee in New South Wales and the Tirari formation on the Warburton River in the Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ... basin. References * ''Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution'' by John A. Long, Michael Archer, Timothy Flannery, and Suzanne Hand (page 79) * ''Dinosaur Encyclopedia'' by Jayne Parsons (page 207) Prehistoric vombatiforms Prehistoric marsupial genera Fossil taxa described in 1887 Pliocene marsupials Extinct mammals of Australia {{Diprotodont-st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diprotodon
''Diprotodon'' (Ancient Greek: "two protruding front teeth") is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia, containing one species, ''D. optatum''. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago, but most specimens are dated to after 110,000 years ago. Its massive fossils were first unearthed in 1830 in Wellington Caves, New South Wales, before any serious scientists were active on the continent, and were variably guessed to belong to rhinos, elephants, hippos, or dugongs. ''Diprotodon'', formally described by Sir Richard Owen in 1838, was the first named Australian fossil creature, and set Owen on a path to becoming the foremost authority of his time on other marsupials and Australian megafauna so enigmatic to European science. ''Diprotodon'' is the largest known marsupial to have ever lived, far dwarfing its closest living relatives, wombats and koalas. It grew as large as at the shoulders, over from head to tail, and possibly almost in w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owen produced a vast array of scientific work, but is probably best remembered today for coining the word '' Dinosauria'' (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile"). An outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species''. Owen's approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology. Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839 and edited many issues of its journal – then known as ''The Microscopic Journal''. Owen also c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn up by a pump, or using containers, such as buckets or large water bags that are raised mechanically or by hand. Water can also be injected back into the aquifer through the well. Wells were first constructed at least eight thousand years ago and historically vary in construction from a simple scoop in the sediment of a dry watercourse to the qanats of Iran, and the stepwells and sakiehs of India. Placing a lining in the well shaft helps create stability, and linings of wood or wickerwork date back at least as far as the Iron Age. Wells have traditionally been sunk by hand digging, as is still the case in rural areas of the developing world. These wells are inexpensive and low-tech as they use mostly manual labour, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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