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Face of ancient Australian 'giga-goose' revealed after fossil skull found
- boomboomsubban 2y agoSearching "giga-goose" before June 3rd brings up basically nothing, someone last year called this species a "gigantic goose" and a bunch of unrelated things. I wonder where the nickname came from, and how important it was towards getting this article published. Also I wonder if there's a move away from "mega" towards "giga" as mega anything seems kinda small. I can't see "tera" ever being a thing, I can't think of an independent connection to some other word meaning large.
- viraptor 2y agoIt's really weird that giga was used, since mega has a specific meaning in this context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna
- martyvis 2y agoAlliteration always anticipates attention.
- greggsy 2y agoThey don't get as much love as the more famous Genyornis, also known as the "Demon Duck of Doom" [1]. [1] https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/extinct-animals/dromornis-planei-bullockornis-planei/ https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/extinct-...
- YurgenJurgensen 2y agoEtymologically, “giga” does make more sense as a generic ’big’ prefix than “mega”. I believe that the former basically means “great” while the latter means “mighty”, which is less flexible. “Tera” has the problem of being overloaded. It’s a homophone with “terra” which is a common prefix for things related to the Earth or ground. Also that lack of a strong second consonant hurts it. Etymologically it means “monstrous”, which is even less flexible.
- Tao3300 2y agoI'm generally curious about what these ancient megafauna tasted like. Especially this one now, seeing as humans apparently ate them to extinction. Someone start cloning monster geese!
- lenerdenator 2y ago> Someone start cloning monster geese! Does Canada's work not count in this regard?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- card_zero 2y agoI vaguely remember somebody tasting thawed-out mammoth once. This would be a better story if it had a conclusion.
- boomboomsubban 2y agohttps://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2023/05/07/mystery-meat-of-1951-did-an-exclusive-club-eat-a-frozen-woolly-mammoth-from-the-aleutians/ https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2023/05/07/mystery-meat-of-1... Tells of two such people, and a myth of more. It tastes like you'd expect random meat sitting in a freezer for millennia to taste like.
- llm_trw 2y agoI'd imagine the sooner something went extinct the tastier it was.
- suzzer99 2y agoLocal legend in Central America has it that manatees contain every kind of meat – chicken, beef, poultry, even bacon. As you can imagine, before modern protections, manatees tended to disappear not long after humans moved into a region.
- yzydserd 2y ago
- helsinkiandrew 2y ago> Shortly after humans arrived, however, Genyornis went extinct. The birds are thought to have been eaten into extinction, with climate change hastening their demise. It’s funny how they (and all the other large mammals) survived for 1.8M years of massive global climate change but the period just after we arrived (like in the Americas) was what “hastened their demise” rather than the humans with clubs they hadn’t had time to evolve to be scared of, eating every last one of them.
- justinclift 2y agoI guess they tasted really, really good? :)
- elmomle 2y ago> The paper suggests that these adaptations might be a sign that the bird was already struggling before the arrival of humans. Changing climate patterns meant that wet areas like Lake Callabonna started getting drier around 60,000 years ago and dried up completely 12,000 years later. > There are indications that the legs of Genyornis were gradually adapting to this drier climate, but the species would have remained under considerable pressure. This environmental stress is thought to be why the birds had higher than expected levels of bone disease at around the same time. In this case it sounds like climate change was in fact a stressor, though I believe you're right--even without climate change this bird would have gone the way of the moa. Perhaps a better phrasing would have been "Already under stress from climate change, they are thought to have been eaten to extinction."
- chrisco255 2y agoDisagree with this assessment. There was not large numbers of humans until the end of the glacial period and the advent of pastoralism and agriculture.
- Jedd 2y ago> pastoralism and agriculture? Which landmass / culture / epoch are you trying to describe here?
- HyulianGrader 2y ago[flagged]
- pjs_ 2y ago[flagged]
- hooverd 2y agoHOOOOOONK.
- irrational 2y agoI’m imagining a two meter high Canadian Goose. Completely terrifying.
- singularity2001 2y agoTyrannosaurus cousin.
- Beijinger 2y agoDude, this is an ugly bird.
- vouaobrasil 2y agoLooks pretty to me. Prettier than most humans.
- dymk 2y agoTakes all kinds
- karaterobot 2y ago> Their extinction was so rapid that only one poorly preserved skull was thought to have survived, leaving much to learn about this enormous bird. It's not obvious to me how the speed of extinction would affect the number or quality of preserved skeletons.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ibejoeb 2y agoThat doesn't look very scary. More like a six-foot turkey.
- suzzer99 2y agoIf it had the temperament of a cassowary it would be absolutely terrifying.
- seanhunter 2y agoNormal geese are scary enough on their own.
- unraveller 2y agoThey spared no expense rendering that image to show it in a friendly park setting, granted, an AI video clip of it learning to open doors would have been much more menacing.
- tonetegeatinst 2y agoA challenger to the laser Kiwi approaches.
- gradientsrneat 2y agoAn impressive bird, but still can't hold a candle to the Giant Moas of New Zealand, also extinct.