EVOLUTION Songbirds originated Down Under

Songbirds sang their first twittering arias in Australia more than 50 million years ago, according to researchers who developed their theory after analysing some tiny scraps of fossilised bone found in the backyard of a farm in Queensland.

If correct, the theory turns current thinking about the evolution of birds on its head. Until now Australia was thought to have inherited a population of feathered travellers from elsewhere. But the new findings, reported in New Scientist, suggest that Australia was where songbird species first evolved.

The fossils were dated to 54.6 million years - nearly 25 million years older than the oldest previously known songbird fossils found in France. They come from the Tingamurra sediments, 160km north-west of Brisbane, a small area at the back of a farm which may have been the site of an ancient billabong, or pool.

As well as what is thought to be the world's oldest songbird, it has also produced Australia's oldest frog, bat, marsupial and salamander.