Researchers have found a tiny bone from underneath a lizard's skin. The study of bone helped scientists to get a new view of life that first humans lived in Australia during the last ice age.

The University of Queensland reported that the scientists, working in Central Queensland, found evidence proving that giant apex predator lizards existed in the Queensland region at the same time as our human ancestors.

UQ vertebrate palaeoecologist Gilbert Price, said, "Our jaws dropped when we found a tiny fossil from a giant lizard during a two [meter] deep excavation in one of the Capricorn Caves, near Rockhampton".

Price said at present, they cannot say whether the bone belongs to a Komodo dragon-which once roamed Australia, or it belongs to a bigger species, like the extinct Megalania monitor lizard.

The findings raise questions as to whether or not the demise of these monstrous lizards was a result of human activity. Australia was home to huge lizards and even 27-foot-long (8.2-meter) crocodiles during the last ice age. But their later disappearance has not been conclusively pinned on humans. Humans can only now be considered as potential drivers of their extinction, he said.

The bones uncovered was a 0.4-inch (1-centimeter) osteoderm, a bone found under the skin, it was found just 6.5 feet (2 meters) below ground during a dig in a cave.

Price and his team date the bone to about 50,000 years ago, which matches up with the arrival on scene of the country's first Aboriginal people.