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Home > Marketplace > ABC Commercial > Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?

Director: Jeff Siberry

Producer: Jeff Siberry, Oliver Graham, Kirsty Walsh, Elle Gibbons

Executive Producer: Penny Palmer

Genres: Factual


2 x 60'

Australia was once home to a group of extraordinary animals known as Megafauna - giants who lived here for millions of years, Among them Thylacoleo, a marsupial lion armed with bone crushing teeth, Megalania, the world’s largest land-based venomous lizard, and Procoptodon, a short-faced kangaroo that may have been too massive to hop – all brought to life in this series with the most scientifically accurate representations ever created for television.

In a blink of time, the Megafaua disappeared forever; what became of them has been debated for over a century, but now a team of scientists are re-opening this paleolithic cold case. To uncover the answers to this age-old mystery they dive into underwater caves, use the latest technology to build ingenious experiments, and helicopter out onto a remote lakebed to make a once-in-a-generation discovery.

The team tests the leading theories of extinction, from climate change to the arrival of humans on the continent, and investigates whether a geological phenomenon, the flipping of Earth’s magnetic poles, was the final nail in the coffin for these epic beasts.

Their findings could rewrite the history books, and provide surprising new clues that could once and for all answer: what killed Australia’s giants?

The palaeontological detective work is insanely cool stuff…science fans, especially those of us who are heavily into the monsters of prehistory, will be in heaven
- The Age

It's astonishing to think that a marsupial as big as a family SUV roamed Australia
- The Daily Telegraph