August 16, 2006

Chicken of the sea? Not!

Scientists in Australia have discovered a fossilized ancient relative of the blue whale with a fearsome razor-toothed appearance that has seen it dubbed "the T-rex of the oceans".

The fossil is the latest in a list of ancient creatures including sabre-toothed kangaroos, horned "devil wallabies" and the unlikely-sounding "demon duck of doom" that are reshaping views of Australia's prehistoric past.

Full story here. And there's more coming:
Museum Victoria's head of science John Long will also this week present findings from expeditions into a cave in Australia's remote Nullarbor Plain that yielded a fossil treasure trove, including the only complete marsupial lion skeleton ever found.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime fossil," Long said. "For the first time we could see the complete limbs and feet, revealing an opposable thumb with a huge retractable claw which was used to disembowel prey.

"It was like the velociraptor of the mammal world."

Posted by David on August 16, 2006 9:06 PM

Comments

A *marsupial* lion was "like the velociraptor of the mammal world"?

Posted by: Larry on August 20, 2006 7:06 PM

That's so cool!

A marsupial lion...that is so neat.

I really dug the "demon duck of doom." Even wrote about it myself in my blog.

Posted by: Circe on August 27, 2006 12:11 AM
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