« Science: January 2016 | Main | Science: March 2016 »

Cause Regular Lions Wasn't Good Enough For You

Fucking marsupial lions. So not kewl.

When humans first set foot in Australia about 50,000 years ago, they could have faced ferocious marsupial lions that ambushed prey from trees and grew to the size of African lions. A new study reveals the now-extinct megafauna were adept climbers, could tear meat cleanly off bones, and reared their young in caves.

...

"We assumed that they were at least partly arboreal," Archer said. "The hind foot has an opposable first toe, the front arm is grasping and the fore limbs are extremely powerful, which is typical of animals that climb, having to pull their body weight up. And their claws are quite capable of maintaining them in trees.

"These were hunters that didn't necessarily run down prey, but surprised and lunged at them - yes, dropped from trees."

And the study further suggested they were expert at tearing flesh from bones. As with other fossils thought be the remains of prey consumed by marsupial lions, no bones in the cave had any visible teeth marks. The researchers said the same thing was found with the remains of prey from flesh specialists such as lions, who usually tore meat clean off bones without leaving marks that could be seen on fossils.

Archers said it was possible the lions not only hunted from trees, but also dragged their prey into trees to consume them.

And i thought tree-climbing crocodiles was wrong. At least they can't stalk and leap at you. Man, i hate prehistoric animals.