Alcoota fossil fields near Alice Springs dig up late Miocene period bone
On a dry desert landscape, 115 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs, sits one of Australia's most significant fossil beds. It offers a fascinating window into the past when giant megafauna walked the land. And this year, palaeontologists have uncovered a groundbreaking discovery.
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00:00An ancient landscape holding secrets of a changing climate.
00:07Paleontologists have been coming to these prehistoric fossil beds northeast of Alice
00:10Springs for four decades, uncovering a treasure chest of bones belonging to long-extinct giant
00:16land animals.
00:18This site is witnessing the birth of the Red Centre.
00:22For the first time, paleontologists have uncovered an articulated leg of a large flightless bird,
00:28the Ilbandornis woodbunni, meaning they can now tell the difference between two species
00:33of the prehistoric bird already in the museum's collection.
00:37Now we've got concrete proof because we've got a single individual, so all the bones
00:43we know belong to that particular species.
00:46The Alcuda fossil beds are relatively young, at 8 million years old.
00:51And it's the only place in Australia which gives a detailed picture of how land animals
00:55once lived.
00:56We have registered in our collections 10,000 different bones that we've dug up from this
01:02site.
01:03For three decades, volunteers have been coming to these beds, hoping to dust off a rare discovery.
01:08I love the place.
01:09It's something spiritual for me.
01:11It's hard to believe that this arid desert landscape was once wet and humid and home
01:16to giant flightless birds and wombat-like creatures.
01:20Despite decades of digging here at the Alcuda fossil beds here in central Australia, some
01:25of the mysteries remain unsolved and undiscovered.
01:28We're digging up pieces of the past in order to inform the future.
01:34Mysteries of the distant past still to be discovered.