Kougar
07-13-2006, 06:25 AM
Okay, posted this since I know we have at least a few members from down under... ;)
Australia is rather famous for its strange, and often dangerous fauna. The world's only poisonous, egg-laying mammal, more poisonous snakes and spiders than one could shake a particularly long stick at, birds that can disembowel unwary humans, drop bears, you name it, they're dangerous. And according to palaeontologists, it was worse in the past.
The continent has been cut off from the rest of the world's land masses for quite some time, and as a result marsupials—the early mammals that rear their infants in pouches—evolved to fill niches that we associate with more advanced mammals on other continents. This new discovery was made in northern Australia, and turned up several new species, including a carnivorous duck-like bird, dubbed the "demon duck of doom", and what appears to be a flesh-eating kangaroo
The rest (With links) is at http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2006/7/12/4621 (http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2006/7/12/4621)
Australia is rather famous for its strange, and often dangerous fauna. The world's only poisonous, egg-laying mammal, more poisonous snakes and spiders than one could shake a particularly long stick at, birds that can disembowel unwary humans, drop bears, you name it, they're dangerous. And according to palaeontologists, it was worse in the past.
The continent has been cut off from the rest of the world's land masses for quite some time, and as a result marsupials—the early mammals that rear their infants in pouches—evolved to fill niches that we associate with more advanced mammals on other continents. This new discovery was made in northern Australia, and turned up several new species, including a carnivorous duck-like bird, dubbed the "demon duck of doom", and what appears to be a flesh-eating kangaroo
The rest (With links) is at http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2006/7/12/4621 (http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2006/7/12/4621)