Overview
- A peer‑reviewed study identifies ~55‑million‑year‑old fragments from the Tingamarra deposit at Murgon as the oldest crocodilian eggshells known in Australia.
- Researchers name the new eggshell type Wakkaoolithus godthelpi and attribute it to extinct mekosuchine crocodiles, with links proposed to the early genus Kambara.
- Eggshell microstructure and geochemical signals indicate nests on lake margins and reproductive strategies tuned to fluctuating wet–dry conditions.
- The findings bolster evidence that some mekosuchines were terrestrial or semi‑arboreal “drop crocs” that hunted within forested habitats.
- Twelve fragments collected in the 1990s from a grazier’s backyard were re‑examined with optical and electron microscopes, with results published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.