Drying and dying in Australia: extraordinary creatures and climate change 15 million years ago

1500万年前，澳大利亚全球独一无二的哺乳动物面临着从郁郁葱葱的温室到干燥的冰库的气候骤降。在昆士兰北部，被列入世界遗产名录的AL90洞穴里，化石丰富的沉积物跨越了这段时间的变化。埋葬的是数十具保存极为完好的头骨和关节骨骼，其中包括一种罕见的、可能类似树懒的有袋类动物的生长系列，从幼年到成年，以及更熟悉的袋鼠、袋鼠和蝙蝠。我们的化石研究将有助于使澳大利亚的生物变化记录与全球古气候事件保持一致，并为测量环境和生物变化的性质和速度提供基准，这些变化继续改变着我们的国家。

Australia's globally distinctive mammals were confronted 15 million years ago by a climate plunge from lush greenhouse to dry icehouse conditions. In northern Queensland, in the World Heritage-listed cave known as AL90, fossil-rich deposits span this interval of change. Entombed are dozens of extraordinarily well-preserved skulls and articulated skeletons including a growth series from pouch-young to adults of a rare, possibly sloth-like marsupial as well as more familiar kangaroos, thylacines and bats. Our fossil research will help align Australian records of biotic change with global palaeoclimatic events and provide a benchmark for measuring the nature and rate of environmental and biotic change that continues to transform our nation.