BIZARRE ‘PLATYPUS FISH’ FOUND ON AUSTRALIA’S ORIGINAL REEF Funded through the ARC Discovery Projects scheme, Professor John Long and his research team at Flinders University and The Australian National University have discovered a remarkable ancient fish with a long snout, reminiscent of a platypus bill. The fossil, named Brindabellaspis , belongs to an extinct group of armoured fish called the placoderms, and was found in a region near the Brindabella Ranges in New South Wales which is the site of one of the world’s oldest coral reefs. Placoderms existed as a diverse range of species on the reef habitat 400 million years ago, occupying many of the evolutionary niches that are now taken up on modern reefs by ray-finned fishes. The research team have reconstructed two of the ancient fossils and discovered the fish had a long bill extending out in front of its eyes. The discovery shows that early species of vertebrate fish were highly adapted and specialised, and opens up many more questions about what might still be discovered in this remarkable Australian fossil reef. The researchers suggest that the bill of Brindabellaspis may have had a function similar to that of a modern platypus or a paddle fish, whose snout is full of electroreceptors to help locate its prey. (Above): A life reconstruction of Brindabellaspis stensioi, an unusual placoderm fish from the 400-million-year old Burrinjuck reef in New South Wales, Australia. Credit: J ason art, Shenzhen. (Below): The long platypus-like snout of the 400 million year old placoderm fish Brinadabellaspis, from the Taemas site in NSW. Credit: J.Long, Flinders University.
ON THE DOG’S TRAIL ARC-funded researchers from The Australian National University and The University of Western Australia have radiocarbon dated the oldest known dingo bones from Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain and have found that they are between 3,348 and 3,081 years old—later than thought previously. Archaeologist and ARC Australian Laureate Fellow, Professor Sue O’Connor, says that most researchers believed dingoes arrived in Australia sometime between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago or possibly even earlier. They were almost certainly introduced as domestic animals and once in Australia they became feral but were tamed by Indigenous Australians and used as companion animals in much the same way as dogs today. Their spread would have been rapid because it would have been aided by people, as they were useful animals or pets and were likely transferred between groups. The new dating techniques were conducted directly on dingo bone from the cave deposits, rather than by using charcoal from a nearby hearth, which is far less accurate. The more accurate dating information helps us to better understand the timing of the disappearance of a number of other native animals including the Thylacine from mainland Australia, which followed their predation by newly-arrived dingoes.
The new evidence suggests that dingoes arrived in Australia more recently than previously believed.
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD 12
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD 13
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