Platypus-zilla...a meter long toothed platypus..Nicknamed ‘Godzilla Platypus’

Ancient platypus was big and bitey
PLATYPUSES may be known for their duck bills and timidity, but an extinct relative was bigger than a bulldog and had teeth strong enough to crush turtles.

(Artist's impression of a giant, extinct platypus feeding on a tortoise. Artwork by Peter Schouten. The inset photo of the platypus's molar shows it was vastly different to the dysfunctional teeth of living platypuses.)

NSW biologists have identified a previously unknown species of platypus – the fifth and biggest so far – from a tooth found at a renowned fossil site in Queensland’s gulf country.

“It would have been one of the biggest animals by far in those ancient waterways,” said University of NSW palaeontologist Mike Archer.

“Only crocodiles would have been bigger. Everything else would have thought twice about going for a swim with this platypus-zilla.”

Before the latest find, three extinct platypus species were known from fossils discovered in Central Australia’s Simpson Desert, Argentina’s far south and the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland. The new species is thought to have lived between five and 15 million years ago, reaching a metre in length.

A far cry from the cute ones we know.

Based on the size of tooth, it is estimated that this extinct species would have been nearly a meter (more than three feet) long, twice the size of the modern platypus. The bumps and ridges on the teeth also provide clues about what this species likely ate.

They think from the surrounding fossils it ate crayfish and other freshwater crustaceans, but also on small vertebrates including the lungfish, frogs, and small turtles.

The latest discovery contradicts views that the platypus evolved in a “linear” fashion with only one species existing at a time. “There were unanticipated side branches on this (evolutionary) tree, some of which became gigantic,” Professor Archer said.

He said the discovery reinforced ideas that the platypus’s closest relative, the echidna, had evolved after the Patagonian platypus died out about 60 million years ago. “We have to look at echidnas as specialised platypuses that came out of the water, and started chasing termites instead of yabbies,” he said.

With this new discovery they will be rewriting some books on the species evolution. Science is eager to change when adequate evidence is presented.

The modern platypus completely lacks teeth as an adult and instead bears horny pads in its mouth; Obdurodon tharalkooschild is unlikely to have been its immediate ancestor.

Toothed platypuses, Monotrematum sudamericanum, lived in what is now South America until 61 million years ago.

The oldest extinct platypus found in Australia was 26-million-year-old Obdurodon insignis. A larger species, Obdurodon dicksoni, was found in 19 to 15 million year old deposits at Riversleigh, and the remains include the only known fossil platypus skull.

While many of Riversleigh’s fossil deposits are now being radiometrically dated, the precise age of the particular deposit that produced the new species, Obdurodon tharalkooschild, is in doubt but is likely to be between 15 and 5 million years old.

Pretty interesting find. I have always thought the platypus was one strange creature laying eggs yet still being a mammal. They also have poisonous barbs on their hind claws but I could never bring myself to think of them as dangerous. If I saw one as big as a bull dog with teeth I might.

The species has been dubbed Obdurodon tharalkooschild after a Greek word for “permanent tooth” and the Dreamtime character Tharalkoo, a duck who was accosted by a water-rat and gave birth to the first platypus.

The Austrailian
sciencenews.com
eurekAlert

wait.
There's an even deadlier platypus than the ones now with POISON SPURS?

Everything down under is evolved to kill us all.
If militaries just made Australia bombs, that turned local geographies into cannibal parakeet infested, crocodile riddled, spider inundated, deadly jellyfish saturated, snake packed, shark attack hazardous, poison platypus WITH TEETH territory, everyone would be waving the white flag.

I wonder how much milk a giant platypus could sweat in a day? Enough for a bowl of cereal or enough for cereal, mashed potatoes, AND homemade brownies? It would be even better if they sweated Eggnog... just sayin'. It is close to Christmas. Wal-Mart says so.



Grimpachi... I like you. You always post the most weird, fun, unknown, and amazing things. Thanks for that. S&F

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


Hahaha…..thanks.

The world is strange and I like its strangeness. The weird critters I keep finding on the internet show that.

I have a couple I plan on posting sooner or later that fit that category.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


Wait... They sweat milk? Or just the giant ones did? Weird... The young just lap it up off mamas skin?

Am I the only one who read the thread title and thiught it was going to be a creature with meter long teeth??

reply to post by 3n19m470


Indeed they all do....

5. The Platypus has no nipples.

I have nipples. I am a man, I do not lactate, yet I have nipples. This makes me the exact opposite of the female platypus. The female platypus does lactate... and does feed its young with mother’s milk... but without nipples. So how, you might ask, does the mother platypus get the milk into the mouths of her demon spawn? The same way you get sweat in your belly button, my friend... the very same way.

The milk is literally secreted through pores in the platypus' skin where it pools up along grooves in the mother's abdomen, ready to be licked up by the eager little offspring.

Amazing animals!

www.environmentalgraffiti.com...

reply to post by Grimpachi


I will be on the look out for more then. I love just about anything you could make a documentary out of. And that is just about anything... literally.

Kangaruex4Ewe

5. The Platypus has no nipples.

I have nipples. I am a man, I do not lactate, yet I have nipples. This makes me the exact opposite of the female platypus. The female platypus does lactate... and does feed its young with mother’s milk... but without nipples. So how, you might ask, does the mother platypus get the milk into the mouths of her demon spawn? The same way you get sweat in your belly button, my friend... the very same way.

The milk is literally secreted through pores in the platypus' skin where it pools up along grooves in the mother's abdomen, ready to be licked up by the eager little offspring.

Well there goes all my sense of reality once again... damn it.