Re: Big birds on Paleoworld

[derek@iprolink.co.nz (Derek Tearne)]

At 12:48 AM 10/1/96 -0500, Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 96-01-10 00:24:52 EST, derek@iprolink.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
>writes:
>
>>It became extinct when the polynesian population consumed the Moa and
>>other flightless birds which were its main diet.
>
>Too bad it couldn't adapt its main diet to include some of the polynesian
>population...

Actually, Maori legend would tend to suggest that it did indeed do this,
which ultimately only helped speed up its demise.

(details of relavent legends may follow if anyone is interested)

Maori legend also mentioned a giant striped lizard about two feet long.
Discounted as merely a myth by western scientists (as was the giant eagle)
this eventually turned up as a single stuffed specimen of a giant ghecko
in a (large) drawer in a French collection.

A few scattered sightings of a monster lizard in east cape and the coromandel
give a little hope that they Kawekaweau may still exist.




Derek Tearne.  - http://webservices.comp.vuw.ac.nz/artsLink/ManyHands/
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.