Fanged killer kangaroo roamed Outback Wednesday, July 12, 2006; Posted: 11:14 a.m. EDT (15:14 GMT) SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Forget cute, cuddly marsupials. A team of Australian palaeontologists say they have found the fossilized remains of a fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck of doom". A University of New South Wales team said the fearsome fossils were among 20 previously unknown species uncovered at a site in northwest Queensland state. Professor Michael Archer said on Wednesday the remains of a meat-eating kangaroo with wolf-like fangs were found as well as a galloping kangaroo with long forearms that could not hop like a modern kangaroo. "Because they didn't hop, these were galloping kangaroos, with big, powerful forelimbs. Some of them had long canines (fangs) like wolves," Archer told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. Vertebrate paleontologist Sue Hand said modern kangaroos look almost nothing like their ferocious forebears, which lived between 10 million and 20 million years ago. The species found at the dig had "well muscled-in teeth, not for grazing. These things had slicing crests that could have crunched through bone and sliced off flesh", Hand said. The team also found prehistoric lungfish and large duck-like birds. "Very big birds ... more like ducks, earned the name 'demon duck of doom', some at least may have been carnivorous as well," Hand told ABC radio. Archer said the team was studying the fossils to better understand how they were affected by changing climates in the Miocene epoch between 5 million and 24 million years ago.
They've known of marsupial lions for ages, and theres nothing to suggest the demon duck was any more a capable hunter than a big turkey, distict from the south american varieties that certainly seemed carnivorous. As for carnivorous kangaroos, looking at the fossil record of placental ungulate species and respective jaw features, its not too likely they were, by default, at the top of the food chain. jmo. Canines do not a carnivore make.
Top of the food chain? Who cares? Pit bulls aren't at the top of the food chain, either, but I wouldn't want to have one trying to tear my throat out. Today's kangaroos could beat the shit out of you. Imagine one with fangs....tell me you wouldn't loosen your bowels if you had one of those chasing after you.
Sure, agreed. Strangely, the aborigines of north western victoria had tales of , detailed descriptions of the birds in question -what they ate, etc. Dreamtime myth, or were these things like the moa or elephant bird of mauritiaus, and were actually around quite recently? Weird, huh? When were they supposed to have died out? Yeah, the big red hoppydogs are beasts allright, even the eastern grey bucks are big enough. Stalked one to about 20 yards, right out in the open one time, stuffed if i was getting any closer.
Not very often, an occasional "attack" where someone will surprise one in the backyard , particularly in drought's. Dogs on the other hand, because their inclined to chase them, will follow them into water (roo's are great swimmers) where the roo just drags them under and shreds them. They have the capacity to break your ribs or disembowel you, sure.
No, thats "demon drawdowns of death". Note the extended lower incisors, typical of mapropodidae, found in most rodents, many ungulate species, and many other herbivores.
Further, an extensive ,and extraordinarily muscled jaw and brain stem structure is evident-from the pic. But if those are the "wolf-like"canines they mention, well....hmmmm. Buit if this thing is even half the size of already known predators of the time, there's no reason it couldnt have been a carnivore, you ever been bitten by a rat?