What a great name for an animal:
Flesh-eating kangaroos galloped around Australia more
than 10 million years ago, along with an oversize bird scientists
jokingly describe as the "demon duck of doom".
The
killer kangaroo, known as Ekaltadeta, was uncovered at the Riversleigh
fossil fields in north-west Queensland, along with 20 previously
unknown species, including the fearsome carnivorous duck and a
prehistoric lungfish.
A carnivorous duck?
In
I believe this is likely to be the creature referred to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullockornis_planei
Really, no more a ‘duck’ than extinct sabertooth cats were ‘tigers’, but don’t look for palaeontological accuracy when there’s a splashy, attention-grabbing article to write….
Don’t blame the journalists for the name, it’s the archaeologists who made up the name.
I also like the Trilophosuchus rackhami, nicknamed the “Drop Croc” as it is theorised it may have attacked prey by climbing trees and dropping on them.
“nicknamed the “Drop Croc” as it is theorised it may have attacked prey by climbing trees and dropping on them”
Good grief!
Aussie palaeontologists seem to have a lot more fun than any other sort…..
Tim adds: Didn’t Terry Pratchett (in “The Last Continent”) poist drop bears? Like koalas, except carnivores, who would drop out of trees onto their prey?
“Demon Duck of Doom”? Sounds daffy to me.
Service rumour, related to me long before Mr Pratchett penned “The Last Continent”, has it that the term “drop bears” was first coined by mischievous Australian soldiers when relating to US Marines the perils to be found in the Outback.
By all accounts the diggers then spent the entire exercise rolling around laughing as leatherneck patrols nervously scanned the upper branches of eucalyptus trees for kamikaze koalas.
RM
So a keen sense of humour is not confined to just palaeontologists in the land Down Under then…?
I’d really love to hear an Intelligent Design proponent try and explain a “demon duck of doom”.
No, on reflection, I wouldn’t. Those guys take things far to seriously to see the funny side of it.
RM
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