Museum grants glimpse into Australia's past

Friday, June 5, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL Paleontologist Karen Roberts of the University of New South Wales in Australia gave a lecture on the evolution of life and land over 60 million years in Australia at the Calvert Marine Museum on Saturday. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Prehistoric Australia may seem far afield for the Fossil Club at the Calvert Marine Museum, but the Land Down Under sheds more light on finds from the spectacular Calvert Cliffs than one might think, according to Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology.

While the finds are obviously distant in space, a recent speaker discussed fossils from about the same time, the Miocene Epoch, as items that a lucky beachcomber might pick up locally, Godfrey said. In any event, club members are generally interested in learning about fossils wherever they can be found, he added.

Karen Roberts discussed marsupials, Australia's only native mammals, with the crowd Saturday, May 30, at the Solomons museum. From the University of New South Wales, Roberts is spending a year at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History working on collections. Marsupials include animals from opossums to kangaroos and are a "primitive" type of mammal that carries its young in pouches.

In some ways, Australia has more in common with the New World than one might think. For instance, Roberts described the "monito del monte," or "little mountain monkey," a small marsupial from South America. As it turns out, however, the monitor is more closely related to marsupials in Australia than others nearer by, showing that the ancestors of Australian marsupials must have made a long and difficult trek from South America across Antarctica to Australia about 40 million years ago, before the continents had separated, she said.

But in other ways, Australia is definitely an alien land. Roberts described fossils of carnivorous "killer kangaroos, ones that actually ate other animals. We no longer have those animals but we do know they existed," she said.

The massive diprotodon was similarly unusual: "If you imagine a rhino-sized wombat, this is what it would look like," she said.

But the arrival of Australian aborigines tens of thousands — or even 125,000 — years ago contributed to the extinction of many of these species of large beasts, and their relatives aren't faring better under European colonization, when many species are disappearing, she said. Some species of wallabies and the so-called marsupial wolf have vanished this century, while the famous Tasmanian devil might not be far behind.

Still, the news isn't all bad.

"It's not an entirely sad story but it's one that should be known so it doesn't get repeated," Roberts said. "… Not all marsupials are on the verge of extinction, even in Australia. Australia is a wonderful, amazing place and it is quite resilient."

After the talk, the club adjourned to the Drum Point Lighthouse to mull things over — and enjoy ice cream.

Joe Balenger and Joy Coral of Mechanicsville came to the lecture because they have been fascinated by Australia since traveling there two years ago.

"We really enjoyed it, it's a beautiful place. Oh my God, the beaches were beautiful. The place is awesome," Balenger said.

Coral was disappointed that Roberts didn't address the continent's famed aquatic life in her speech, but acknowledged, "Australia is a very big continent. There's so much to talk about."

Their enthusiasm bodes well for Marty Harahush of Huntingtown, who came because he was days away from a trip to visit his daughter north of Brisbane.

"On Wednesday, we're leaving for a trip to Australia, so we wanted to learn a little more about it," he said. " … I enjoyed it, especially the geology part of it, the continental drift thing," he said.

emitrano@somdnews.com