Massive ancient kangaroos became extinct because they were ‘homebodies', scientists believe
New research shows the kangaroos known as protemnodon — which weighed up to 170kg, twice as heavy as a modern-day male red kangaroo — mostly kept to the same rainforest areas in northern Queensland.
This led to their extinction when a lack of rain caused the rainforests around what is now the Mount Etna Caves National Park to disappear, the research published in the science journal PLOS One reveals.
The behaviour contrasts with today's kangaroos which often roam vast distances in search of new food and water sources during changes in climate, such as drought.
Protemnodon were 'real homebodies', according to vertebrate palaeontologist and Queensland Museum senior curator Dr Scott Hocknull, who co-authored the study with other experts including University of Wollongong palaeo-ecologist Chris Laurikainen Gaete.
'These gigantic kangaroos were just chilling at home, eating the rainforest leaves because there were heaps of them around,' Hocknull said.
'The environment was quite stable. It meant that over hundreds of thousands of years, these animals decided that staying put was a good bet.'
The limestone caves around the Mount Etna region, north of Rockhampton, also likely provided protection from ancient predators such as marsupial lions.
However, the findings came as a surprise to researchers who predicted the mighty prehistoric roos might have a vast territory due to their size.
'We were astounded to find that they didn't move far at all,' Laurikainen Gaete said.
Previous research suggests it was the protemnodon's body shape and size which rendered them incapable of long-distance roaming.
New technology
The latest study used new isotopic technology — which the researchers said has 'blown our field wide open: — along with fossil teeth remains found around Mount Etna Caves to learn about the large marsupial's behaviours.
'Imagine ancient GPS trackers — we can use the fossils to track individuals and know where they moved, what they ate, who they lived with and how they died,' Hocknull said.
't's palaeontology Big Brother. It fundamentally shifts how palaeontologists and ecologists look at the fossil record.'
The researchers also applied similar techniques to smaller kangaroo fossils.
'Many of the kangaroos found as fossils at Mount Etna and Capricorn Caves, including tree kangaroos, pademelons, and rock wallabies, have living descendants in the wet tropics and Papua New Guinea,' Laurikainen Gaete said.
'We will now apply these same techniques to understand how these surviving kangaroo species responded to the same environmental changes that drove the megafauna extinct.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
26-06-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Australian scientist helping to re-write the story of civilisation
As she painstakingly excavated bones left behind by the inhabitants of the settlement known as the world's first city from their dry, sandy graves, Dr Eline Schotsmans gazed across the fields surrounding her dig site to a volcano in the distance. More than 8500 years ago, these ancient villagers from Catalhoyuk in Turkey – a leading contender for the world's oldest farming settlement – made wall paintings of the same twin-peaked volcano she could see on the horizon. 'It's one of the few moments in my life that I suddenly understood what it is to feel the ancestors,' Schotsmans, an expert in archaeo-anthropology from the University of Wollongong, said. Cutting-edge new DNA analysis of the skeletons Schotsmans helped excavate has revealed the people in this prehistoric outpost of civilisation may have venerated women as the centre of society, upending the assumption early agricultural settlements were ruled by men. Catalhoyuk marks one of the critical turning points in the history of civilisation when, 9000 years ago, Neolithic nomads built a village of mud-brick homes studded with the skulls of wild bulls, weasels and foxes, and began to cultivate crops and tend livestock. Upon the discovery of its remains in the 1960s Catalhoyuk was dubbed 'the world's first city'. The new evidence shows the households of the ancient settlement were dominated by matriarchal lines, and that girls who died were adorned with more elaborate burial offerings than boys. 'Societies that stay at the same spot and do agriculture are usually patrilineal,' said Schotsmans, who was a co-author of the major new findings led by Eren Yuncu and Professor Mehmet from Middle East Technical University. 'Here we're actually looking at matrilineal society, and I think that is quite unique. 'I think nowadays, with the world's problems, it's very relevant. The world is still very male dominated, isn't it? I was looking at the NATO Summit in The Hague, and it's just males.' Experts believe Catalhoyuk was an egalitarian place with little social hierarchy. Everyone's homes were of similar size. The spoils of early agriculture including barley, pistachios and goat milk were shared; bone analysis showed everyone ate well regardless of their sex or family. The people of Catalhoyuk buried the dead underneath their homes. The new analysis of ancient DNA from the burials published in Science revealed family members in a household were usually connected through the female line. Two homes had burials spanning three generations, all connected through mothers. In one building, the children of three sisters were buried together but the child of their brother – a paternal cousin – was laid to rest elsewhere. Females usually remained connected to their household while males moved away, suggesting husbands relocated to their wife's household when they were married. One elderly woman was afforded an 'exceptional' burial underneath the main room of a home she didn't share with genetic kin, with an anklet of deer canines and a grave adorned with boar tusks and beads, suggesting she may have held a prominent social role. For the first time, scientists were also able to identify the sex of children buried at Catalhoyuk through DNA, which showed girls may have been particularly venerated in death. People were often buried with an array of grave goods, including obsidian blades, eagle talons, bracelets of human teeth, hooks fashioned from the jawbones of aurochs and beads made from turquoise, shells and the vertebrae of fish spines. The new paper reveals girls had five times the number of such offerings compared to boys. 'I think it stresses the diversity in social systems. Maybe we should stop with having our Western assumption that everyone is like us,' Schotsmans said. Schotsmans had already studied differences in how men and women were buried by the people of Catalhoyuk, who daubed the bodies of their dead with dyes of malachite, azurite and ochre. Orange stripes of cinnabar often marked the craniums of men, while women were anointed in shades of green and blue, colours associated with the growth, fertility and ripeness which could be related to the society's transition to agriculture. Loading The role of women at Catalhoyuk has been discussed at length since the site was discovered in the 1960s and voluptuous female statues were recovered, sparking imaginations of a 'mother goddess' cult. The new evidence raises the prospect these figurines didn't represent gods or fertility – perhaps they were designed to celebrate the real women of Catalhoyuk, said Professor Andrew Fairbairn, an archaeology expert from the University of Queensland who wasn't involved in the study.
The Age
26-06-2025
- The Age
The Australian scientist helping to re-write the story of civilisation
As she painstakingly excavated bones left behind by the inhabitants of the settlement known as the world's first city from their dry, sandy graves, Dr Eline Schotsmans gazed across the fields surrounding her dig site to a volcano in the distance. More than 8500 years ago, these ancient villagers from Catalhoyuk in Turkey – a leading contender for the world's oldest farming settlement – made wall paintings of the same twin-peaked volcano she could see on the horizon. 'It's one of the few moments in my life that I suddenly understood what it is to feel the ancestors,' Schotsmans, an expert in archaeo-anthropology from the University of Wollongong, said. Cutting-edge new DNA analysis of the skeletons Schotsmans helped excavate has revealed the people in this prehistoric outpost of civilisation may have venerated women as the centre of society, upending the assumption early agricultural settlements were ruled by men. Catalhoyuk marks one of the critical turning points in the history of civilisation when, 9000 years ago, Neolithic nomads built a village of mud-brick homes studded with the skulls of wild bulls, weasels and foxes, and began to cultivate crops and tend livestock. Upon the discovery of its remains in the 1960s Catalhoyuk was dubbed 'the world's first city'. The new evidence shows the households of the ancient settlement were dominated by matriarchal lines, and that girls who died were adorned with more elaborate burial offerings than boys. 'Societies that stay at the same spot and do agriculture are usually patrilineal,' said Schotsmans, who was a co-author of the major new findings led by Eren Yuncu and Professor Mehmet from Middle East Technical University. 'Here we're actually looking at matrilineal society, and I think that is quite unique. 'I think nowadays, with the world's problems, it's very relevant. The world is still very male dominated, isn't it? I was looking at the NATO Summit in The Hague, and it's just males.' Experts believe Catalhoyuk was an egalitarian place with little social hierarchy. Everyone's homes were of similar size. The spoils of early agriculture including barley, pistachios and goat milk were shared; bone analysis showed everyone ate well regardless of their sex or family. The people of Catalhoyuk buried the dead underneath their homes. The new analysis of ancient DNA from the burials published in Science revealed family members in a household were usually connected through the female line. Two homes had burials spanning three generations, all connected through mothers. In one building, the children of three sisters were buried together but the child of their brother – a paternal cousin – was laid to rest elsewhere. Females usually remained connected to their household while males moved away, suggesting husbands relocated to their wife's household when they were married. One elderly woman was afforded an 'exceptional' burial underneath the main room of a home she didn't share with genetic kin, with an anklet of deer canines and a grave adorned with boar tusks and beads, suggesting she may have held a prominent social role. For the first time, scientists were also able to identify the sex of children buried at Catalhoyuk through DNA, which showed girls may have been particularly venerated in death. People were often buried with an array of grave goods, including obsidian blades, eagle talons, bracelets of human teeth, hooks fashioned from the jawbones of aurochs and beads made from turquoise, shells and the vertebrae of fish spines. The new paper reveals girls had five times the number of such offerings compared to boys. 'I think it stresses the diversity in social systems. Maybe we should stop with having our Western assumption that everyone is like us,' Schotsmans said. Schotsmans had already studied differences in how men and women were buried by the people of Catalhoyuk, who daubed the bodies of their dead with dyes of malachite, azurite and ochre. Orange stripes of cinnabar often marked the craniums of men, while women were anointed in shades of green and blue, colours associated with the growth, fertility and ripeness which could be related to the society's transition to agriculture. Loading The role of women at Catalhoyuk has been discussed at length since the site was discovered in the 1960s and voluptuous female statues were recovered, sparking imaginations of a 'mother goddess' cult. The new evidence raises the prospect these figurines didn't represent gods or fertility – perhaps they were designed to celebrate the real women of Catalhoyuk, said Professor Andrew Fairbairn, an archaeology expert from the University of Queensland who wasn't involved in the study.
The Age
24-06-2025
- The Age
COVID antivirals are heavily marketed. It's not clear how well they work
Observational studies of the drugs included in the analysis concluded that the drugs halve the risk of hospitalisation, but the researchers are concerned that the results might be biased by differing trial designs. Generally, scientists look to randomised controlled trials for gold-standard evidence. New Zealand stopped subsidising Lagevrio in 2024 due to concerns about its effectiveness. Australia's COVID-19 Evidence Taskforce recommends against using the drug, which costs $1102 a pack. Despite that, Australian doctors gave out 315,000 scripts last year, plus another 243,000 for Paxlovid. Lagevrio and Paxlovid were the fifth and ninth-most-expensive drugs to taxpayers in 2023-24. The taskforce only recommends Paxlovid for unvaccinated people. It offers a limited recommendation for those who have been vaccinated but are elderly and have multiple risk factors, while noting the evidence is 'unclear'. 'In our systematic review, there were no randomised controlled trials conducted in vaccinated people since 2022 that reported a benefit from COVID-19 antivirals against hospitalisation or death,' said Dr Laura Edwards, a researcher at the University of NSW who led the study. 'It is timely to re-evaluate whether the cost we are paying for these drugs is appropriate.' It is plausible that the drugs may be useful for a small cohort of extremely high-risk people, who are elderly and have multiple risk factors, says Cheng. But this group is rarely enrolled in medical trials, making it difficult to work out the true efficacy. Loading 'I'm not entirely sure there's much benefit in that group. But there probably isn't any harm done by it.' Dr Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, a senior fellow at the University of Wollongong, has published an analysis of Paxlovid's cost-benefit. He said there was evidence of a small reduction in hospitalisation risk, making the drug still worth subsidising. 'I think that Australia has a very reasonable, pragmatic approach, prioritising high-risk individuals who will benefit and not paying for low-risk people who probably won't.' In a statement, Pfizer pointed to the first study of Paxlovid, which demonstrated an 86 per cent reduction in the risk of hospitalisation or death: 'Real-world data collected during the Omicron period among high-risk populations who have received COVID-19 vaccinations reinforce the effectiveness of Paxlovid in preventing hospitalisations and deaths.' MSD, which sells molnupiravir, said it stood behind the drug. The Department of Health said both antivirals were under review by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, with results expected mid-2026. Lagevrio and Paxlovid work by stopping the virus that causes COVID-19 from multiplying in our cells, theoretically giving the immune system a leg up against it. The first studies by the drug companies found the two pills cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about 50 per cent and 89 per cent respectively in unvaccinated people. Loading But Lagevrio's 50 per cent effectiveness was only seen in a study that stopped halfway. When the full trial was analysed, whether it offered any benefit at all became debatable. A large independent study in 2022 also found it was likely no better than a placebo. A study published by Pfizer last year concluded Paxlovid's protective effect in vaccinated patients, including those at high risk, was so small as to not be statistically significant. That study began in 2021 but was only published in 2024. Research conducted by the Grattan Institute late last year found that wealthier Australians were far more likely to be prescribed COVID antivirals than those at the bottom of the income ladder, despite people living in disadvantage typically having much greater risk factors for severe disease. 'Essentially, like so many things in our healthcare system, the treatments and services weren't going to the people who need them most,' said Peter Breadon, the Institute's health program director. Nearly all Australians have either been vaccinated or survived a COVID-19 infection, meaning there is less benefit from antivirals. And the Omicron variant is less likely to hospitalise or kill a patient than the preceding Delta variant. 'COVID is a different disease to what it was,' said Cheng, who is now director of infectious diseases at Monash Health. '[Patients] don't get pneumonia and lung white-out, generally. It's almost like we're doing a study in a different disease, which is making it difficult to work out how relevant … what we found out early on [is] to what we know now.' This stark difference shows up in Pfizer's studies of Paxlovid. In Pfizer's first study, involving unvaccinated people, 7 per cent of patients given a placebo ended up in hospital and 13 died. In the second study, which involved vaccinated people, just 1.6 per cent of the placebo group were hospitalised. 'For young, fit and healthy people, antivirals are not going to do much. You're at pretty low risk,' said Cheng. 'For older people – those over 65 or 70 – or people who have other medical issues, that's one they should go and see their GP.'
