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Long ago, almost up until the end of the last ice age, a peculiar giant kangaroo roamed the mountainous rainforests of New Guinea.Now, research published by myself and colleagues suggests this kangaroo was not closely related to modern Australian kangaroos. Rather, it represents a previously unknown type of primitive kangaroo unique to New Guinea.Australia used to be home to all manner of giant animals called megafauna, until most of them went extinct about 40,000 years ago. These megafauna lived alongside animals we now consider characteristic of the Australian bush – kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and the like – but many were...

Humans and kangaroos are close cousins on the evolutionary tree sharing a common ancestor 150 million years ago, according to Australian researchers. Scientists have mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials for the first time and found large chunks of DNA are the same. 'There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order,'  said Jenny Graves, director of the Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics. 'We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not....

A wildlife park has welcomed its newest arrival – complete with a rare gene that’s sure to make it one of the park’s biggest attractions.A Victorian wildlife park has been blessed with a rare new attraction after one of the park’s wombats gave birth to a striking golden joey. The golden wombat is the result of a rare gene in southern hairy-nosed wombats. The new golden wombat, named “Honey Bun”, was born at Ballarat Wildlife Park to mum Nulai and dad Willy. The light-coloured wombats aren’t commonly found in the wild and it’s thought their lighter colour could make them...

It may no longer be enough to protect species like Australia's marsupials from predators – we may have to assist in their evolution if they are to survive the 21st Century. "I spent 15 years removing cats from fenced reserves and national parks," says Katherine Moseby. "And then, all of a sudden, I was putting them back in. It felt very strange to be doing that." ..... "A lot of the focus has been on trying to come up with methods of killing cats better," says Moseby, who holds a PhD in reintroduction biology. "And we sort of started looking...

Platypus eating a worm. ============================================================== The first complete map of a platypus genome has just been released, and it's every bit as strange as you'd expect from a creature with 10 sex chromosomes, a pair of venomous spurs, a coat of fluorescent fur, and skin that 'sweats' milk. The duck-billed platypus is truly one of the oddest creatures on Earth. Along with the spiky echidna, these two Australian animals belong to a highly-specialised group of mammals, known as monotremes, which both lay eggs but also nurse their young with milk. The genes of both are relatively primitive and unchanged, revealing...

A comparison of museum specimens has found that thylacines on mainland Australia were smaller than those that persisted into modern times in Tasmania, and significantly smaller than dingoes. The last known Tasmanian thylacine died in 1936. Measurements of the head size and thickness of limb bones of the semi-fossilised remains of thylacines and dingoes from caves in Western Australia have revealed that, on average, dingoes were larger than thylacines. “In particular, dingoes were almost twice as large as female thylacines, which were not much bigger than a fox,” says ecologist Dr Mike Letnic, an ARC Future Fellow in the UNSW...

The endangered tree kangaroo of Papua New Guinea captured on film.

Scientists studying the kangaroo genome have cast doubt on the credentials of a gene thought to be crucial to the process of inactivating one sex chromosome in women. The finding challenges a whole field of research that has developed around the XIST gene since its discovery in the early 1990s. Scientists had expected that the gene – which was thought to direct the switching off of a surplus X chromosome during embryonic development – would inform our understanding of how genes are controlled in normal development, and how control goes awry in genetic diseases such as cancer. The sophisticated genetic...

Marsupials not colour-blind after all Catriona Purcell ABC Science Online Monday, 28 March 2005 This little creature, called a quokka, is helping to overturn long-standing beliefs about marsupial vision (Image: Catherine Arrese/Nature) Australian marsupials can see in full colour, new research has found, making them the only other mammals apart from primates to do so. A team led by Dr Catherine Arrese from the University of Western Australia in Perth reports its findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal of the UK's Royal Society. Most people think marsupials lack colour vision, says Arrese, but her team's...

They are small and round and look like furry footballs - and they are being kicked to death by young Australians for "fun". The quokka, a species of miniature wallaby found only in Western Australia, has become the renewed target of a sadistic "sport" called quokka soccer. The quokka, a species of wallaby found only in Western Australia Since last Sunday, eight quokkas have been found dead on the seven mile-long island of Rottnest, apparently kicked or beaten to death. The animals were found on a cricket oval near Thomson Bay Settlement, one of the few villages on Rottnest, a...