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Australia

Turquoise waters of the Murujuga site.

A Submerged 7,000-Year-Old Discovery Shows the Great Potential of Underwater Archaeology

Stone tools scattered on the seafloor mark the oldest underwater site ever found on the continent

This 1846 daguerreotype is likely the oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person.

Newly Discovered Portrait May Be Oldest Known Image of Māori Person

The photo depicts Hemi Pomara, who was kidnapped and “exhibited” by British colonialists in London during the 1840s

A painting that imagines what a living Mukupirna nambensis and its surrounding environment would have looked like some 25 million years ago near Lake Pinpa, Australia.

Cool Finds

300-Pound, Wombat-Like Creature Once Roamed Australia

Paleontologists describe a new species of extinct Australian marsupial that is most closely related to modern wombats but was the size of a black bear

An archival photo of the main street in the Frog's Hollow neighborhood of Brisbane, Australia

Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Artifacts From 19th-Century Australian Chinatown

Chinese immigrants created a community in the Frog’s Hollow neighborhood of Brisbane

In Australia, pyrocumulonimbus clouds sent somewhere between 300,000 and 900,000 metric tons of smoke into the stratosphere.

New Research

Australia’s Fires Sent Smoke 19 Miles High

The unprecedented plumes of were carried aloft by smoke-filled thunderclouds and exhibited unusual wind patterns

The endangered smoky mouse was feared to be extinct after the 2019-2020 fire season in Australia. But researchers have spotted survivors in seven locations, offering hope for the species' persistence.

Australian Mouse Feared Extinct After Fires Found Alive

Camera traps spotted the endangered smoky mouse in seven different locations

Artist Jason deCaires Taylor's “Ocean Siren” changes color according to the average daily water temperatures measured at Davies Reef on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Recently, marine heatwaves have wreaked havoc on the Great Barrier Reef, causing the most widespread bleaching ever recorded.

This Sculpture Takes the Great Barrier Reef’s Temperature

‘Ocean Siren’ changes colors in real time to reflect ocean temperatures at Davies Reef, part of Australia’s ailing Great Barrier Reef

An aggregation of roughly 64,000 green sea turtles at Raine Island in Australia.

Drone Footage Shows Thousands of Nesting Sea Turtles

The roughly 64,000 green sea turtles were photographed off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia at Raine Island, the turtle’s largest breeding ground

Shot in 1935, this is a still from a newly rediscovered bit of footage depicting Benjamin, the last captive thylacine on Earth. He was on display at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania.

‘New’ Footage of Benjamin, the Last Tasmanian Tiger Ever Seen Alive

The short video hasn’t been seen in more than 80 years and shows the animal pacing its enclosure in Hobart, Tasmania

Discovered at the Yilbilinji rock shelter in northern Australia's Limmen National Park, the drawings are between 400 and 500 years old.

Cool Finds

Rare Form of Miniature Stenciled Rock Art Found in Australia

New research suggests the small-scale illustrations may have been made with beeswax

A young koala recovers at the wildlife park hospital.

Planet Positive

The Great Koala Rescue Operation

Raging bushfires. Devastated wildlife. And the compassionate souls who went to the rescue

An artist’s rendering of what an elaphrosaur may have looked like.

Rare ‘Light-Footed’ Dinosaur Discovered in Australia for the First Time

A single vertebra spotted by a dig volunteer was identified as a strange, slender-necked dinosaur called an elaphrosaur

Evoca1 for PUBLIC Silo Trail, Pingrup (2018)

Virtual Travel

See How Artists Have Turned Farm Silos Into Stunning Giant Murals

The projects are helping Australia’s drought-stricken rural towns find new life as outdoor art galleries

Prickles, a barefaced merino sheep who went unshorn for seven years after fleeing her home in Tasmania during a spate of 2013 bushfires

Prickles the Sheep Returns Home After Seven Years on the Lam(b)

After missing years of shears, the voluminous creature had ballooned to about five times the size of a typical sheep

A survey of 1,036 reefs in the Great Barrier Reef over the last two weeks of March revealed the most widespread bleaching event on record.

New Research

The Great Barrier Reef Is Now Facing Most Widespread Bleaching Event Yet

The severity of this year’s bleaching is second only to 2016, during which a third of the reef’s corals died

Eucalyptus trees sprout "emergency foliage" after a wildfire while their leaves regrow.

How Australia’s Wilderness Is Recovering From Wildfires

Greenery is sprouting from scorched tree trunks as the forests regrow their canopies

Swamp wallabies can nourish three separate offspring at once: an older joey that's left the pouch, a young one nursing inside of it, and an embryo that has yet to be born.

Swamp Wallabies Can Get Pregnant While Pregnant

These marsupials can conceive during the final days of an ongoing pregnancy, creating a “backup” embryo ready to take its predecessor’s place

Wildfires destroyed around two-thirds of the homes in Nerrigundah, New South Wales.

Trending Today

All of the Fires in Australia’s Most Populous State Are ‘Now Contained,’ Authorities Say

Torrential downpours helped quash powerful blazes that had gripped New South Wales

So-called Gwion figures feature prominently in some Aboriginal artworks. New research shows some of these paintings may have been completed as recently as 12,000 years ago.

Bookended by Wasp Nests, These Aboriginal Artworks May Finally Have Definitive Dates

New estimates place paintings in Australia’s Kimberley rock shelters at about 12,000 years old

A researcher holds a platypus for a Melbourne Water study conducted in 2017.

Australia’s Droughts and Fires Present New Dangers to the Platypus

Threats to the semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammals demand action, experts say

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