Killer kangaroo, demon duck of doom roamed Outback

[Allan Edels <edels@msn.com>]

> From Yahoo:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060712/sc_nm/science_australia_fossils_dc_1

Killer kangaroo, demon duck of doom roamed Outback
Wed Jul 12, 3:15 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Forget cute, cuddly marsupials. A team of Australian 
paleontologists say they have found the fossilized remains of a fanged 
killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck of doom."

A University of New South Wales team said the fearsome fossils were among 20 
previously unknown species uncovered at a site in northwest Queensland 
state.

Professor Michael Archer said on Wednesday the remains of a meat-eating 
kangaroo with wolf-like fangs were found as well as a galloping kangaroo 
with long forearms that could not hop like a modern kangaroo.

"Because they didn't hop, these were galloping kangaroos, with big, powerful 
forelimbs. Some of them had long canines (fangs) like wolves," Archer told 
Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

Vertebrate paleontologist Sue Hand said modern kangaroos look almost nothing 
like their ferocious forebears, which lived between 10 million and 20 
million years ago.

The species found at the dig had "well muscled-in teeth, not for grazing. 
These things had slicing crests that could have crunched through bone and 
sliced off flesh," Hand said.

The team also found prehistoric lungfish and large duck-like birds.

"Very big birds ... more like ducks, earned the name 'demon duck of doom', 
some at least may have been carnivorous as well," Hand told ABC radio.

Archer said the team was studying the fossils to better understand how they 
were affected by changing climates in the Miocene epoch between 5 million 
and 24 million years ago.

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Since this concerns birds (carnivorous at that), I've made the dinosaur 
connection for this post! :-)

The accompanying photo shows the skull of the Roo - and states that they are 
from 23-29 mya.

Allan Edels