A bantam fogy discovered in primal eastern Australia turn out to be a piece of os from the natural body armor of a giant monitoring equipment lounge lizard – perchance an ancient Komodo dragon . concord to researchers who dated the fogy , the apex predator overlapped , at least in time , with the continent ’s former human inhabitant . The findings were write inQuaternary Science Reviews .
The 1 cm ( 0.4 in ) fossil ( visualize below ) was excavate after meticulous sorting and sieving at the Colosseum Chamber of the fossil - rich Capricorn Caves near Rockhampton . It was an osteoderm , a bone underneath the cutis of large lounge lizard call varanids that reenforce their scales , acting like soundbox armour . " We ca n’t tell if the bone is from a Komodo Draco – which once cast Australia – or an even bigger metal money like the out megalania monitor lizard , which count about 500 kilograms [ 1,100 pounds ] and grew up to six meters [ 20 feet ] long,“Gilbert Pricefrom the University of Queensland said in astatement .
carbon 14 and uranium Th go out techniques put the skin pearl at about 50,000 years former , making it the geologically youngest do it giant lounge lizard on the entire continent . It ’s at least 30,000 years vernal than the previous vernal ( and reliably date ) disc . " The breakthrough is pretty significant , specially for the timeframe that it dates,“Price added . The lizard coincide with thearrival of Australia ’s first human coloniser .
During the last Ice Age in the Pleistocene , massive lounge lizard and 9 meter ( 30 animal foot ) long inland crocodile wandered Australia . " It ’s been long - debated whether or not humans or climate change knocked off the giant lounge lizard , alongside the balance of the megafauna,“Price explained . " world can only now be considered as likely drivers of their defunctness . "
Image in the text : Osteoderm ( cutis off-white ) of the giant monitor lounge lizard from Colosseum Chamber at the Capricorn Caves . Gilbert Price
