Friday, July 14, 2006

Meet K-Rex

Fangeroos and demon ducks. Apparently these are creatures from Australia's "lost period" in history. Archaeologists working in Queensland have unearthed three deposits of fossilized remains which include the aforementioned fangeroos (aka killer kangaroos) which were similar to today's kangeroos except they didn't look anything like them, were flesh-eating and they galloped. I'm not sure how they distinguish them from the marsupial lions, tree-climbing crocodiles and "demon ducks of doom". (Today isn't April 1 is it?) Of course, the description of the fangeroo in the ninemsn.com item I read sounded suspiciously like something else: "They were also far more muscly than the kangaroos we know, with sharp sabre-like incisors and powerful forelimbs to help rip and tear their prey." (OMG - Kangaroo ... T-Rex - the similarity is amazing. Why have we never seen this before!!!) Professor Mike Archer, Dean of Science at UNSW and leader of the expedition, hopes the discoveries will shed light on what happened in Australia up to and beyond 24 million years ago. And it's a good thing we weren't around then - how would anyone have coped with the "demon duck" - three metres tall, with a giant beak and a body mass of 400kg.

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

Well can you imagine preparing duck a l'orange? It would take a whole citrus grove to make the sauce!