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Sat 22 Jul, 2006 12:11 pm
Sabre-toothed rabbits once roamed Outback
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Before there were cuddly koalas, hordes of flesh-eating rabbits, "demon ducks" and marsupial lions roamed Australia's Outback, recent fossil discoveries by paleontologists show.
A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales working in the eastern state Queensland made the discoveries in three new fossil deposits during a recent two-week dig.
Many of the fossils are older than 24 million years; one of the deposits is thought to contain fossils up to 500 million years old, said Prof. Mike Archer, the university's dean of science.
A sabre-toothed rabbit and a giant three-metre-tall, 400-kilogram bird scientists nicknamed the "demon duck of doom" were among the largely unknown species uncovered in the dig, Archer said Wednesday.
"They were galloping rabbits, they didn't hop," Archer said.
"They were also far more muscly than the rabbits we know, with sharp sabre-like incisors and powerful forelimbs to help rip and tear their prey."
The remains of ancient tree-climbing crocodiles and marsupial lions were also uncovered in the rocks.
Archer said many of the animals were similar or related to others elsewhere in the world but had evolved uniquely in Australia. Hundreds have no living representative.
"They are that bizarre. There are, literally, probably in the order of about 500 extinct creatures in these rocks," he said.
Archer said a detailed study of the fossils is expected to provide answers about the evolution of climate and creatures in the past, as well as about the directions they might follow over thousands of years to come.
"The biggest excitement is what's going to happen over the next year in the labs as the rocks dissolve and the treasure inside emerges," he said.
TIM: "That's no ordinary rabbit! That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on! Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide, it's a killer! He's got huge, sharp... he can leap about... look at the BONES!"
littlek wrote:OOooOooOOOoooOOOooohhhh!
"No, it's 'uuuuaaaagghhh'... back of the throat."
Oh, the inhumanity. Carrots slashed by those sabre teeth and wolfed like so many Chiclets.
They were NOT really rabbits.
You all so like to look on the dark side, don't you?
There's no need to feel embarrassed by one's ancestry.
They are not my ancestors. They were marsupials.
I have a holy hand grenade and I'm coming for dlowan.
But first I must count to three, not two, not four, for three is the number that does something special or ...... something.
Miss Wabbit, you're among friends. There's no need to indulge a silly shame. Get in touch with your marsupial side--embrace your inner nature.
There are no pouches in my inner self.
I have goddamned POCKETS, like a civilised creature.
Artist's rendering of Dlowan on nights of the full moon . . .
Setanta in contemplative mood......
:wink: