Biology Ancient Australia (Extinct Megafauna, Dinosaurs etc)

[GreyCrow]

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Ars has an article that updates the considerable progress made in sequencing Thylacine DNA. Not content with simply sequencing, they are adding a few tweaks such as resistance to bufotoxin, the cane toad toxin. I have no idea if this will work but may clever folks think it will. Is it a good idea?

De-extinction company provides a progress report on thylacine efforts

Stem cell editing, complete genome, and cane toad resistance mark necessary steps.

arstechnica.com

Interesting study

As a flip would they then be introduced as the CTs predator?

 

[MP_]

Interesting study

As a flip would they then be introduced as the CTs predator?

would be cool to see happen. I believe the swamp rat has learnt how to kill the toads and bypass the toxins.

 

[CD Xbow]

Interesting study

As a flip would they then be introduced as the CTs predator?

It would be a bloody miracle if they did. Mind you the whole cane toad disaster is a warning about bioengineering. Young folks may not know, the toads didn't even eat the cane beetles they were introduce to control. How stuffed is that?

would be cool to see happen. I believe the swamp rat has learnt how to kill the toads and bypass the toxins.

No surprise it's a rat, they have an extraordinary ability to breed resistance to toxins.

 

[MP_]

It would be a bloody miracle if they did. Mind you the whole cane toad disaster is a warning about bioengineering. Young folks may not know, the toads didn't even eat the cane beetles they were introduce to control. How stuffed is that?

No surprise it's a rat, they have an extraordinary ability to breed resistance to toxins.

One of the biggest biological control failures ever

 

[CD Xbow]

This story is a bit of a beat up, folks are always speculating about Dino intelligence, which did include speculation some time ago that toothy old T Rex may have been as smart as a Baboon. I will remind people, there are two sorts of speculation, the first, is reasonable speculation based on data and then there is wild speculation. T Rex is as smart as a baboon belongs to the later. This article talks about it and the problems of using endocasts of skulls to estimate intelligence and behaviour..

We've Probably Been Wrong About T. Rex Again, Study Says

Dim-witted dope or brainy brawn? The debate over T.

www.sciencealert.com

This graph from the article, shows forebrain size of the different reptile lineages, which show a clear progressive increase in forebrain size from lizards, crocs, dinos and finally birds. From this you would expect T-rex to have the cognition similar to a bird, most likely a dumb one. This is consistent with other evidence of their behaviour such as nesting and forming herds.


Original paper here https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25459

 

[CD Xbow]

Full size skeleton reconstruction of a Thylacoleo carnifex skeleton has been completed by Flinders University Palaeontology researchers, led by Professor Rod Wells (pictured above, the Prof is the one on the left)

Australian lion fossil reconstructed for the first time

A complete model of Thylacoleo, Australia’s once-fearsome carnivorous marsupial lion, including its missing tail bone and other anatomical features of

cosmosmagazine.com

As you can see Thylacoleo was a heavily built ambush predator. At 120 kg Thylacoleo carnifex was the largest of the Thylacoleonids, I posted earlier about some of the smaller species. I actually did a skull reconstruction a few years ago based on a 3D model, which worked out well, though the image is fairly poor quality, it looks better in the flesh ABS plastic

 

[MP_]

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Full size skeleton reconstruction of a Thylacoleo carnifex skeleton has been completed by Flinders University Palaeontology researchers, led by Professor Rod Wells (pictured above, the Prof is the one on the left)

Australian lion fossil reconstructed for the first time

A complete model of Thylacoleo, Australia’s once-fearsome carnivorous marsupial lion, including its missing tail bone and other anatomical features of

cosmosmagazine.com

As you can see Thylacoleo was a heavily built ambush predator. At 120 kg Thylacoleo carnifex was the largest of the Thylacoleonids, I posted earlier about some of the smaller species. I actually did a skull reconstruction a few years ago based on a 3D model, which worked out well, though the image is fairly poor quality, it looks better in the flesh ABS plastic

View attachment 2192490

Look at the size of those front teeth , clearly a bite and hold predator.