This is a terribly belated plug for National Science Week, which has had lots of good stuff on in Museums, on the radio, special lectures and Tv shows since last Saturday and finishing on Sunday. So there’s still time to do something science-y this weekend!
The big story: we truly are the Lucky Country – we have got an absolute sh*tload of seriously scary fossils, any one of which could easily kill and eat a human. This week you may have heard of our “T-Rex of the oceans”
the 25-million-year-old whale fossil has forced scientists to rethink the evolution of baleen whales, the placid giants which feed by using fine hair-like fibres in their mouths to filter plankton from the sea.
“The fossil proves the baleen whale, including toothless filter-feeders like the blue whale, often thought of as gentle giants of the sea, were not always so giant or gentle,” Monash University graduate researcher Erich Fitzgerald told AFP.
While baleens are large — with the blue whale reaching up to 30 metres (98 foot) — the prehistoric predator was a swift hunter-killer only 3.5 metres (11.5 foot) long that fed on fish and small sharks, Fitzgerald said.
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Janjucetus hunderi joins the ranks of fellas like our sabre-toothed kangaroos,
“They didn’t hop. These were galloping kangaroos with big, powerful forelimbs and some had long canines like wolves.
“You might have been looking for Skippy, but you would not have seen Skippy. You would have found his ancestor who would have ended up eating you while you were looking. So it was a very strange world.”
our marsupial lions,
The 100-kilogram creatures, which became extinct within the last 50,000 years, had huge incisors for biting and the lower ones were serrated, he said. “They were like steak knives.”
A study published last year by Australian and Canadian researchers also found the marsupial lion had the most powerful bite of any known animal, including the sabre tooth tiger, hyena and Tasmanian devil.
and our demon ducks of doom (seriously).
Dromornis: Standing about 3m tall, it weighed more than 400kg. It was the largest member of a group of extinct flightless birds called thunder birds that only lived in Australia.
One musn’t forget splendid monsters such as the marine reptile umoonasaurus which once swam around in an inland sea near Coober Pedy.
There are apparently also some horned “devil wallaby” skulls (no images for that, I’m afraid, but here’s more carnivorous roos).
The moral to the story is, if you come across a time-machine and set it to go back more than 50,000 years, take an elephant gun and lots of ammo.
I was really sorry I didn’t get to go to Dr Karl’s free seminar in Brisvegas due to time constraints. Got to love Dr Karl!
He’s ace.
Procoptodon goliah. Best. Megafauna. Ever.
They have a stuffed facsimile of one at the Australian Museum, it rocks.
I once read a report in The Australian that scientists had found the fossilised remains of the biggest goose ever to have existed in Australia. I wrote to the paper arguing that the scientists could not have made such a discovery because Alexander Downer was still alive. They didn’t print my letter.
That’s outrageous! Truth, public interest, fair comment.
Wasn’t the first fossil in the classic schlock horror kitsch fim Lair of the White Worm?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095488/
It is great to see Aussie fossils getting their due. But the televisual treat I’m waiting for is on Sunday where Bill Oddie tackles The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs. I suppose if anything goes wrong a certain ancient Lancasterian martial art will come in handy.
Heh. The togster loves the few episodes of The Goodies he’s seen, but he hasn’t seen that one. I’m not sure what it might encourage him to get up to.
Geologically speaking, didn’t the continent of Australia drift northwards after separating from Antarctica? And if I recall properly, back in warmer, more humid days, Antarctica was also home to some huge, terrifyingly predatory creatures. Penguins beware! (Maybe H.P. Lovecraft really was on to something…)
Are any of these krazy-ass kritters related to the monsters of the Pole?
Did the Thunder Birds lay thunder eggs? I remember staying at a caravan park with Brian and my sister near Mt Tambourine as kids, and there were these amazingly huge eggy things called “thunder eggs”. But I forget if they were real fossils or geological oddities…
As long as you don’t leave the black pudding lying around you’ll be right tig.
j_p_z, there is a collection of Antartic fossils in Australia that include both dinosaurs and giant penguins.
“Thunder eggs” are volcanic relics. I remember fossicking for them somewhere in queensland on a family holiday when I was much much smaller than I am now.
Thought so – they were totally cool finds for a kid, Steve!
You reckon bit of Ekky-thump could see of some of the megafauna, eh Shaun? Wasn’t it Tim Flannery who reckons they were hunted to death? Though probably not by black puddings.
BTW Thundereggs or geodes are formed under high pressure in volcanoes.
Flannery’s position might have to shift in the light of newer evidence, Kate.
(from the last two sentences of this report)
Black pudding has remarkable powers in ridding your garden of megafauna.
What is the origin of the name of the “umoonasaurus”?
Umoona is the aboriginal local tribal name for Coober Pedy, apparently, which is where they were found.
Oh, ok, I had all sorts of weird associations with “new moon” for some reason!
Re the thunderbird eggs the place is Cedar Creek which is on the way up Tambourine Mountain from the inland approach. They had onsite vans. Our holiday was the first with my second wife and the kids from my first marriage and was a dry run for a campervan holiday in NZ. Put it this way, we survived and had two good holidays.
Where I grew up petrified wood was quite common. I recall a whole tree stump and parts of a tree on a hill above the school.
We were not all that far from Chinchilla where they evidently have some also. It was not as spectacular as some places but you don’t hear much about it in the Australian context. We pretty much took it for granted.
Two hours of dinosaurian TV and I’m a bit bemused.
The idea of Prehistoric Park seemed ok but I kept asking myself how the time devices worked. Also the main character seemed afflicted with ‘stating the bleeding obvious syndrome.’ Intresting computer graphics but sort of disappointing. It seemed to play ‘Oh look at the cute critters’ angle and kindly keepers way too much.
And I was expecting Bill Oddie on SBS and didn’t see him at all. It was far more interesting in trying to gauge how a t-Rex and triceratops would face off. A bit of paleontological forensics that worked well. But where was Bill? Did I miss him have they edited the show for Australia?
Tigtog:
Procoptodon? Thylacoleo? Do you want everyone to have monster nightmares tonight?
j-p-z:
Dunno much about Antarctic paleontology myself; someone else might give you an answer.
j-p-z I don’t know either, but I saw a doco once and I think you’re on the right track.
It seems as though this is how it happened (don’t blink!) Pretty wild!
This one is a bit slower (scroll down a bit.)
This one shows a basic pattern of cross-fossilisation.
Gondwana was when we were all together and this is how we drifted apart.
Yo, I can’t tell whether LaTrobe uni is the primary agent in these paleontological excavations. Does LaTrobe uni have a paleontological department? LaTrobe university had their open day today, but I didn’t find out if any paleontology exibits were available there.