Airdate: Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?

Tonight ABC premieres Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?

This is a two part series about prehistoric marsupials, produced internally by ABC. This comes ahead of a revived season of Walking with Dinosaurs from the BBC, expected in 2025.

Oh and should we mention narrator is Hugh Jackman….

Episode 2 screens next week.

Australia was once home to a group of extraordinary animals known as Megafauna. These giants lived here for millions of years, but in a blink of time, they disappeared. So what became of them?

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

These giants lived here for millions of years, but in a blink of time, they disappeared forever. What became of these giants has been debated for over a century, but now a team of scientists are re-opening this paleolithic cold case.

To find the answer they’ll 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.

They’ll test the leading theories of extinction, from climate change to the arrival of humans on the continent, and investigate 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?

Production credit: An ABC Production. Produced, Directed and Filmed by Jeff Siberry, Producers Oliver Graham, Kirsty Walsh, Series Producer: Elle Gibbons, ABC Executive Producer Penny Palmer, ABC Head of Factual Susie Jones.

8pm Tuesday 25 June on ABC.