IN AUSTRALIA’S PAST

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1925, Page 4

IN AUSTRALIA’S PAST

TlliS FIRST I,AND ANIMAL. When tho shipping docks were, being excavated at Cockatoo Island the 7 workmen discovered the remains ol a curious animal embedded in the sandstone. The fossil hones were those ol | a creature known to science as a labyrinthodoiil, and the discovery is . of interest heeause these were the first remains ever found in Australia <(! any animal which was able to wail-, on the land. Other remains were found later at (loslortl. Iknvral MPeters, ami elsewhere. A clear impression of a footprint of one of tinanimals was dug out at St. Peters from a depth til'seventy left below Ihe suiTm-e. It occurred in a layer ol hardened in ml. and was nearly I"" left in length. Obviously its owner must have been ol some considerable sign. From the various lahyriut.hommt lo sil, which have been round, ii has

been proved that this, Australia’s first land animal, was a curious mixture of (i'h. reptile, and amphibian. Chiefly, however, was it amphibian of the class represented to-day hy the frog-, toads, and iicxvts. In the enrh stages of its life it inhabited fresh water, as does a tadpole to-day, and breathed hy means ol gilL. As il grew older! however, it discarded the gills and developed lungs, thus .becoming. like the frog, an air breather which would drown if kept under water. Though haunting the waler s edge. it. was essentially a land animal

in Pnc adult singe. In a ecu ram. e it Hurt have somewhat resembled a gigantic “hluetongtie" lizard, from H>H t<> '-111 in length, and with tlm hulk ol a bullock. lis Hat, triangular heat! was provided with a third eve in the centre of the skull (there is a species o, small lizard living in New Zealand to-day which siill possesses the rudiments of a simiar third eye). I here was not such a dill'ercmv in length lidxvccii the fore and hind limbs as is tile case with the modern frog; still, there was a dilfereiiee. anti ils limbs were well adapted for either walking or swimming. The animal was provided with a short tail, thick and almost cylin-

drical at the base, hut rapidly tnperj ing to a blunt point. But. perhaps. , iis feet it were the most remarkable s fee. 1 lire ah-mt it. Instead ot being merely surrounded with a ciatiug ol f enamel, the latter wound in and nul throughout the hotly ol each iootli in s ;m extraordinary series ol la liy e i 1 1s thine eonvidulions. hence the name ,; “lahy riut htalont , This, then, was our first land animal. It lived when the land, from the present Newcastle In Hulli .and ,i out to the western edge ol the Dividing range, was a great liesh-wat 1 -1 ~ lake, on to whose sinking bed rivers from the south-west poured sediments j- which made our samlst me ol i. >-*I :t> I; liwd even before that. Im fo--ds s udl ns that lahyrinisdimt ho liauntctl

t the swamps where grew the I nick growl hs of ferns and niu-s, which , eventually, under the pressure ot (lie ~ later sand deposits, were tu form the great cad scries which is work-.'.1 at | Newcastle. I.ilhgow, and the near alps of Europe had tipi) arc I ab ac the ' -a. or i lie Himalayas had rai- d o their mipbl x lo ads io gaze over India, i our lii-st land animal n|,n arml m | Australia. And. though line limes a hundred million year- may have V puss 'll since tllcli. the n e,.rd-. el ite life are writ t n in ill' I ok o| Ire i'.'.ck-: under mtr led. sp thal we ni'ix V |e-id lb. -11l if We XV ill.