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September 06, 2003
In search of missing links....
While it probably won't last long (because most of the links expire), I found myself today bumped up into TTLB's "Marauding Marsupial" category. Upon my first examination of the Ecosystem, when I was a Slimy Mollusc, I vowed that if I ever reached the level of Marauding Marsupial I would have to announce to the world which marsupial I wanted to be -- partly to bestow a title on myself -- but also in the more altruistic (that word again) spirit of Marsupial Empowerment. Marsupials, like many of us, suffer a bad rap. They are often unfairly stereotyped as boring slothful vegetarians, idiotic kangaroos hopping around (and running courtrooms which railroad people on phony charges), kangaroo wannabee-wallabies, drooling possums which play dead at the slightest sign of trouble, or any number of lesser-known tree climbing things -- all considered "backward" for the mere crime of having a pouch. Well not this guy! You are looking at a realistic model of Thylacosmilus -- a fearsome marsupial which occupied an ecological niche as close to the saber toothed tiger as it was possible to be without actually being a saber toothed tiger! Thylacosmilus was a unique group of South American predators, about the size of a modern leopard. The genus is an evolutionary anomaly. It appeared suddenly in the Miocene of the isolated South American pampas as an animal entirely unique. It has no known ancestor or descendant. The shearing facets of the molars make the most effective cutting device known in carnivorous mammals. No other marsupial now known from any part of the world has developed the peculiar sabre-tooth weapon.Now that's cool! I'll bet they ate more than their share of "Large Mammals" too. Even the Playful Primates probably stopped playing and took to the trees when they saw a Thylacosmilus coming. Humans and Higher Beings simply did not exist in the good old days. This, er, thing had a long way to go. I think a marauding Thylacosmilus could probably have handled him. posted by Eric on 09.06.03 at 12:46 PM |
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