Australia



Australia has always been a very bizarre place. During the early Triassic, Australia was connected into Pangea. This was covered not in rainforest, but in temperate forests. The animals you thought would be present are not present in Australia. Weigeltisaurs are absent, therocephalians are absent, and pareiasaurs are absent. Those animals that did exist on other continents that lived on Australia were for the most part the same. During the Norian Hothouse Event, Australia was the least affected of the continents. Small, arboreal gorgonopsids were present, along with the large ground dwelling dicynodonts.

In the early Jurassic, the first continent to start breaking apart was Australia. It disconnected from Africa first, and then it disconnected itself from Antarctica, though a thin land bridge still connected them. This is when the bizarre fauna of Australia began to evolve. Temnospondylids, which were relatively large elsewhere with small keratinous bumps on their heads, were enormous. Suchimorphs did not enter Australia, so they became giants, the largest temnospondyl was †Beelzanodon australis, at 9 metres long. It stalked the rivers, attacking terrestrial fauna like crocodiles. The anatomy of Australian temnospondyls are also very bizarre. Some evolved spade shaped heads, possibly to display to mates. Others had long, narrow snouts like a gharial's, although the snout was thicker. They inhabited every part of Australia, as long at there were rivers. Another amphibian group was the lysorophians, snake like amphibians which were dangerous predators. The temperate forests gave way to open land, prairies. Here, other bizarre organisms evolved, including the †Zenatrafp, a giant carnivorous plant that feeds on anything as big as 5 centimeters or smaller. Cynodonts were very common across the prairies, and the smaller species could be in danger from the carnivorous plant. These prairie cynodonts had shortened skulls, with large incisors, similar to rodents. They fed on whatever they could find. Gorgonopsids surprisingly were absent. They migrated to Antarctica, because of a predator found nowhere else on Earth; Biarmosuchians. They went extinct everywhere else but in Australia, and they took the role that gorgonopsids used to have. All had bizarre facial features, horns and bumps, and most had sabreteeth. They used them to hunt the dicynodonts of Australia. Australia at this time was both evenly open land and forests. To the north were extreme deserts, which even the biarmosuchians had a problem with. In the middle of Australia is a huge chunk of rainforest. It is thought that it created a green band in the middle of Australia. Down below that was more open land, but this was a strange habitat, mainly comprised of a combination of deserts and prairies. It was not totally a desert, as vegetation grew and precipitation and temperatures were like those in the temperate forests. Then, there was the beaches, which had the Antarctic Ocean right on the coast. Pinnedont fossils are abundant here, most abundant being the †Ankylovenator, which hunted mainly for hard shelled animals, like ammonites and clams. Unlike other continents, Australia did not form any mountains as a result of the Pangea breakup, but mountains did form at the end of the Jurassic period. They were very low mountains, but there was also a slight increase in volcanic activity. When the Jurassic ended, so did the volcanic activity. The biarmosuchians died out as a result, and archosaurs, which rafted over to Australia, became the dominant animals.

The beginning of the Cretaceous, the Andrean Plateau was formed, and it had bizarre lifeforms. Dicynodonts began to go extinct as archosaur competition began to eliminate them. While suchimorphs were dominant, the most surprising feature is that paramammaliaformes were getting not only more diverse, but also larger. Here in Australia is the only place on the planet where paramammaliaformes actually became large predators. They were akin to birds, but had many differences. One such predator, †Bubomimus, thrived in the temperate forests. It was covered in the feather or fur like integument, had tiny arms, and a long tail, which ended in a pygostyle. It had four toes touching the ground the first two were sharply recurved, like †Balaur bondoc. It is thought to have preyed upon smaller paramammaliaformes, but it too was preyed upon by large archosaurs. A long legged suchimorph, †Rauisaurus, was much bigger and likely would've preyed upon †Bubomimus. Cynodonts were in competition with these archosaurs. Some archosaurs evolved extremely shrew like bodies. However, cynodonts migrated into colder regions to avoid competition. That way, cynodonts remained as top predators and organisms in the mountains and plateaus, while archosaurs were rulers of temperate lands. This meant that Australia was and still is the only place on Earth where archosaurs rule. Some suchimorphs evolved into psittacosaur like forms, and were primarily omnivorous. When the Campanian glaciation event began, archosaurs of Australia managed to diversify to adapt to the aquatic lifestyle. Protorosaurs were already here, but suchimorphs managed to evolve into streamlined aquatic predators. One form, †Kalikasaurus dermiticaulis, shrunk the hindlimbs and their forelimbs because near flippers. Elsewhere in Australia, the temnospondyls were in trouble. The lysorophians went extinct at the beginning of the Campanian, and temnospondyls had to exist in remote areas, like the mountains. Here they would remain safe for a while.

Meanwhile, once the Campanian glaciation ended, it had little affect on Australia. Then, the Maastrichtian ice age began, and this caused a faunal morphing never seen before. Cynodonts, some of which were barely recognizable to be cynodonts, began to come back to the lowlands, and some became otter like forms, and swam in the Antarctic ocean. Archosaurs and cynodonts managed to survive side by side with little conflict. Because the ice caps locked up so much water, the coastal areas of Australia extended out, and the Antarctic ice caps ended up connecting onto the coastal Australian lands. Beyond the ice caps were very dry deserts, which gave little to no rain. This put an intense strain on the fauna. However they managed to recover and adapt quickly. This remained this way into the early Paleogene in the Cenozoic. More to be added soon...