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Why Australia’s Flamingo Population Died Out
Flamingos as tall as emus once stalked the lands of Australia, but when inland lakes disappeared, so too did the striking pink plume of the bird. Australia was once home to three different species, mostly inhabiting the outback.
Now, all that points to their existence are the pink salt lakes, like that of Lake MacDonnell in Western Australia.
They roamed Australia for about 25 million years, Flinders University researchers say, and some were much larger than the flamingos we know today.
The inland lakes they called home gradually disappeared, due to climate change, killing off the last of the Aussie flamingos about 140,000 years ago. A pink salt lake at Port Gregory in Western Australia. Central Australia was once home to many luscious pink lakes – and flamingos.
When all the lakes dried up, the species was doomed, fossil bird expert Associate Professor Trevor Worthy said. “Feeding on tiny crustaceans, which gave them the familiar pink colour, these birds evolved to live in shallow lakes and breed during the seasonal blooms of algae and zooplankton,” Professor Worthy explained.
The tale of the Australian flamingo comes as a complete list of all fossil birds in Australia is published, detailing about 100 birds that once flew in our skies. “Flamingos are just some of the bird diversity lost in Australia’s history,” Professor Worthy said.
“What we show is that there is much yet to learn about the evolution of Australia’s birds through more work on the fossils described so far. “It shows we know very little about the evolution of important Australian groups such as raptors, pigeons, parrots and songbirds. In fact, there is much yet to learn about land birds generally.” As well as overgrown flamingos, Australia was also once home to giant penguins, avian palaeontologist Dr Jacqueline Nguyen added.
Plumage colour determines which flamingos stay in the pink – study
The pinkest flamingos are the most aggressive when it comes to squabbling over food, scientists have found. New research from the University of Exeter also suggests bright pink plumage to be an indicator of good health in lesser flamingos. -
3 Replies
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Thanks for all that info, Howard! As much as I enjoy reading about Australia, I’ve never thought about the paleoclimate. If modern humans had been around back then, the whole continent might have become as densely populated as Europe.
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Quite enjoyed that Howard, very interesting, and I, too was unaware of what was mentioned, my new thing learned for the day ????(sorry , no flamingos on the choices, swan will have to suffice)
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Australian wild life and geography always fascinated me. I saw a BBC documentary a long time ago about prehistoric Marsupials (mammals with pockets that Kangaroos are part of ) in Australia, some that were carnivorous and were big and ferocious and could have made T-Rex look lame in comparison. Anyway the last of the big Kangaroos (Short Faced Kangaroo) that stood some 2 meters tall and weighed up to to 500 pounds (230 KG) existed only some 18,000 years ago.
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