Thursday, October 8, 2009

Komodo Cousin "A Nasty Piece of Work

The "tantalizing bones"—which date to the middle of the Pleistocene epoch (1.8 million to 11,500 years ago)—are unique enough that Hocknull suspects they represent a new species. But only "more fossils and time will tell," said Hocknull, senior curator of geosciences at Australia's Queensland Museum.

The newfound predator would have lived in open landscapes alongside giant tortoises, dwarf elephants, and perhaps even the extinct human ancestral species Homo erectus, Hocknull said.

Like the Komodo, the lizard would have ambushed its prey

More on: http://news.nationalgeographic.com

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