Australia circa 50 million years hence...

I designed a few concepts for what wildlife in Australia would look like in 50 million years time. I had imagined that carnivorans took the bulk of predatory niches, with feral cats and dingoes taking many niches in similar ways to big cats, wolves and Amphicyonids. But it is the native species that we want to see the descendants of, surely, so here they are.


The platypus may evolve a denser, more folded sensory array on its bill, to become even better at locating prey.

Emus could potentially evolve into desert specialists, resembling ostriches in the configuration of their toes.


We could potentially also see emus evolve into forest-dwelling, browsing species of giant size, resembling the Mihirung birds of the Tertiary.

It is possible that echidnas will evolve a more upright posture, and become giant once again, as they did in the Pleistocene.

Potoroids may converge upon Pig-footed Bandicoots, and evolve into an array of hooved, herbivorous forms.


Possums may evolve into robust folivores eating only eucalyptus, in order to replace the Koala, which we may assume has become extinct.

Camelids may evolve into enormous grazing megaherbivores, rivalling rhinos in size.

It is also possible that the Rakali or Hydromys, will become more specialized to a life in the water, coming to resemble a sealion.

Kookaburras may become the dominant aerial predators, following the extinction of most raptorial birds.


Kangaroos may evolve gigantic browsing forms resembling the Megatherium in shape, which do not hop.

The current kangaroos may continue on their trajectory of evolution for fast hopping, and evolve to be even more athletically built.

Forms of kangaroo specialized to thrive in the heat, by radiating heat from bare skin, may evolve.

Browsing species convergently resembling Sthenurines may appear also.

As well as large browsers that convergently resemble the ancient Palorchestes.

It is wholly possible that giant grazing kinds of kangaroo may give up hopping altogether and become plodding beasts.

I hope you enjoy this collection of speculative Australian animals, I had thought long and hard about it, and I am pleased with my concepts.

All images, designs and writing on this blog are the property of Timothy Donald Morris, do not use, reproduce, or copy them without my permission.
© Timothy Donald Morris 2021

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