Killer roos and deadly ducks
If you wrote a work of fiction titled "Flesh-eating Kangaroos and Demon Ducks," people would think you were being goofy. But if that's the title you gave a news story, then you were just being descriptive.
Oh, the world is so magnificently strange.
SYDNEY, Australia (AP)—Before there were cuddly koalas, hoards of flesh-eating kangaroos, "demon ducks" and marsupial lions roamed Australia's Outback, according to recent fossil discoveries by paleontologists.
A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales working in the eastern state of 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, according to Prof. Mike Archer, the university's dean of science.
A saber-toothed kangaroo and a giant 10-foot-tall, 881-pound bird scientists nicknamed the "demon duck of doom'' were among the largely unknown species uncovered in the dig, Archer told reporters Wednesday.
Oh, the world is so magnificently strange.
4 Comments:
Remember when, after you linked to the article about the gifted performer for kids' parties, we talked about the different expectations involved in reading fiction vs non-fiction? It's the same issue.
By Ted, at Fri Jul 28, 12:27:00 PM MST
Ah, yes, certainly. A different value placed on truth that is supposedly stranger than fiction than fiction that is as strange as truth.
By Greg van Eekhout, at Fri Jul 28, 01:12:00 PM MST
Maybe it's not truth is stranger than fiction as much as strange truths are more subject to hyperbole than fiction.
By briant, at Fri Jul 28, 01:36:00 PM MST
All I know is that the world needs more sabertooth kangaroos.
By David Moles, at Sat Jul 29, 11:58:00 PM MST
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