Re: Island mammals

[Stephen Dedman <dedmans@newton.dialix.com.au>]

> At 06:44 PM 2/19/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >>The only island ecosystem I can think of, in which the top >predator prior
> >to human intervention is a non-avian tetrapod >that seems substantially to
> >have evolved in place (rather than >being a small modification of something
> >that came with the >island, as in Tasmania or Madagascar), is Komodo...
> >
> 
> New Caledonia had until very recently a terrestrial Crocodile.  In New
> Guinea today the largest predators are crocodiles and monitor lizards; even
> in Australia you might argue for the Saltwater croc, the Perentie and one
> of the larger pythons as up there with the thylacine.

Pleistocene Australia also boasted _Megalania_, a monitor lizard growing
up to 26' long), and _Quinkana_, a land-dwelling crocodilian, among its
top predators.

- Stephen Dedman

  It depends on
> habitat: there are places in Africa where the chief predator of wildebeest
> is the Nile Crocodile, at least at certain times of year.
> --
> Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
> International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
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> 
>