Re: Some silly misinformed journalists' been at it again!

[Derek Tearne <derek@iconz.co.nz>]

> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> Yesterday an article appeared in the kids section of an English national
> paper, The Sunday Times. It appeared in a section titled The Intelligent
> Cod. Hopefully I won't get into any trouble with copyright by quoting it here.
> 
>         Birkdale, the Cod's Dogfish, is a sweet-tempered pet, but I 
>         have seen him in a new light after news from New Zealand.
>         Palaeontologists (dinosaur hunters) have made a startling 
>         find: a fossilised dog, 60 feet long, and nicknamed 'Jurassic 
>         Bark'. 

Hmmm.  I'm almost certain I'd have heard of anything large and/or
mammalian being found here.  Considering New Zealand was a might 
off-shore at the time I would have to be somewhat skeptical of this creature.

> There certainly weren't any big mammels. Have land mammels ever reached this
> sort of size?

Have land mammals reached New Zealand _at all_.  Until the arrival of 
the Polynesians 900 years ago the only mammals in New Zealand were 
two rather small species of bat.  The dog didn't arrive until the 
Europeans got here.

There were no dogs in australia until the Aborigrigenes arrived 
50,000 years ago.  So a fossilised dog in New Zealand is somewhat 
unlikely.

April must come late in the UK.



---
Derek Tearne.                 --            derek@iconz.co.nz   
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.