Purba Biswas

The Lost Continent of Sahul

Discovery and Ancient Geography Around 70,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, a vast landmass known as Sahul existed in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. This supercontinent connected modern-day Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania, and the Aru Islands, creating a single, enormous landmass. Picture lush tropical rainforests surrounded by majestic mountains, with peaks in the New Guinea Highlands reaching over 13,000 feet. Sahul was a haven for unique wildlife, predominantly marsupials. Unlike today's koalas and kangaroos, Sahul hosted a diverse array of creatures, including the massive Diprotodon, the formidable Thylacoleo, and the giant Megalania, a lizard far larger than any in existence today. The rest of the world was dominated by placental mammals like wolves, elephants, and humans, while Sahul’s mammals were mainly bats and rodents. Different regions, such as the Torres Strait, Arafura, and Carpentaria, featured hot savannahs, dry forests, and temperate coastal forests, resembling modern Australia's varied landscapes.