Antarctopelta the Ankylosaur from Antarctica

Antaractopelta

Antarctopelta was a type of Ankylosaur that lived in Antarctica.  The continent was not as cold then as it is now.  In fact, in the past there were forests in Antarctica.  It is thought that the plants and animals that once lived in Antarctica had to adapt to long dark winters to survive.  The name "Antarctopelta" means "Antarctic Shield."  This is an appropriate name because like all Ankylosaurs, Antarctopelta was covered in very thick heavay armor.  We don't yet know if it had a club at the end of its tail, but many types of Ankylosaurs did.  Some types of Ankylosaurs do not have a club.  

Ankylosaurus Tail Club

Antarctopelta was a samller type of Ankylosaur.  But that does not mean it was tiny.  It was not a horny toad or horned lizard.   (Althogh that modern animal LOOKS a lot like an Ankylosaur.)

Antarctopelta was 4 meters long or about 13 feet long.   It probably weighed 1.2 tons.  It was only the second Ankylosaur ever discovered in the Southern Hemisphere.  

Antarctopelta is known from a few bones including some skull pieces and lots of armor plating.  One unusual feathre is a supraorbital horn.  This was a pair of tiny horns that were directly over each eye.  Meaning one horn stuck out over each eye.  From what I remember, all Ankylosaurs were so well armored that even their eyelids were armored.  Now we know that there was one that even had a horn over each eye!

Note the fuzzyness of the Pterosaur up in the sky.  There is new evidence that perhaps Pterosaurs were covered in a fur-like fuzz or perhaps protofeathers.  This does not chang the fact that Birds did NOT come from Pterosaurs.  Birds evolved from small Theropod Dinosaurs. . . like Microraptor.  

Microraptor flying through the Forest

This is an example of the flying dinosaurs. . . notice it has feathers and is NOT a Pterosaur. 

Ankylosaurus vs T. rex

This type of Ankylosaur was up to 35 feet or about 11 meters.   

It was much much bigger than Antarctopelts. 

But notice that the armor is very similar. 

Procoptodon the Giant Short Faced Kangaroo

Procoptodon the Giant Short Faced Kangaroo

Procoptodon or the Short Faced Kangaroo was a giant compared to modern kangaroos.  Some paleonotologists once thought it may have been up to 3 meters or 9.8 feet tall.   More recent evidence say it was about 2 meters or 6.6 feet tall.  It was on Earth from around a million years ago to 10,000 years ago.  The Australian Aborigines have stories of this long armed giant kangaroo.  The Aborigines may have been in Australia for 60,000 years.  I guess if it used its arms to reach up into a gum tree Procoptodon would have been 3 meters tall.  Or at least its reach was 3 meters or 9.8 feet up.  That is what the Short Faced Kangaroo is doing in this drawing.  

The Short Faced Kangaroo weighed 200-240 kg or 440-530 lbs.  Its Genus name means Forward Hill Tooth.  There were more than one species.  Procoptodon goliah was the biggest.  It was named by Sir Richard Owen.  Sir Richard Owen was the greatest anatomist of his day.  Owen came up with the name "dinosaur."  He was a contemporary of Charles Darwin.  The species name of goliah may refer to the giant named Goliath from the story of David and Goliath in the Bible.  

The Short Faced Kangaroo method of locamotion is debateable.  Some paleontologists think it could jump huge distances in one hop.  But newer studies say it had too stiff of spine to jump like modern kangaroos and it may have walked bipedal like us.. . like humans.  

To compare, the biggest living kangaroo is the Red Kangaroo.  The male Red Kangaroo can weigh up to around 91 kg or 200 lbs.  They can jump 9 meters or about 30 feet in one jump.  

(Modern) Kangaroos in the Australian Bush 

Flower Fairy at Work

Young Flower Fairy at Work

This is a quick drawing that I did for my 3 year old granddaughter.  It is not a drawing done in great deatail.  A young girl would probably have fun coloring it.  It is of a young Flower Fairy helping with the pollination of a flower.  It is a little kown fact that Flower Fairies, like bees and hummingbirs, are important pollinators. 

The printable version of the drawing is found by clicking on the correct  button at the top of the page. . . that would be either Fantasy, Myths, and Circus . . . . or . . . . All Printables.  

Springtime at the Castle

Princess out enjoying the Spring

The Princess, who is named Princess Serenity, loves how peaceful she feels when whe is out walking on the Castle Grounds.  She loves the flowers and birds of Spring.  She also is happy to see the grass turn green agian and the leaves on the deciduous trees to get their leaves back.   

Tasmanian Devil and Wombat

Wombat in Shrubland

The Wambat is a small marsupial mammal that lives in forested and heathland (shrubland) parts of Australia.  It is an herbivore.  There are two speices of Wombat but there are 5 subspecies within the two species.  Wombats are about 1 meter long or 40 inches long.  They weigh between 25 and 40 kg.  That is the weight of the common Wombat.  The Hairy-Nosed Wombat is slightly smaller.  Wombats are the world's largest burrowing mammal. 

Wombats eat practically anything.  Roots, leaves of herbs and trees, grass, sedges and even tree bark.  They are an animal with a very slow digestion  They take around 14 days to digest their food.  They are generally slow walking but they can run fast for a minute and a half at up to 40 kph or 25 mph. 
They probalby mostly run like that when they are fleeing a predator, like the Tasmanian Devil or the Dingo.

Wambats will flee to their hole or den or burrow and stick their butt blocking the tunnel.  Their bum skin is very tough and hard to bite through.  So a pursuing predator has little chance of biting through.  The Wombat will also kick at the predator and can sometimes crush the predator's head into the wall of the tunnel.  Remember that Womabts would only be fleeing from a Tasmanian Devil if they were the Wambats that lived in Tasmania.  There ARE Wombats in Tasmania. 

Tasmanian Devil

Speaking of Tasmania.  .  .  The Tasmanian Devil once lived in Australia.  It now lives only on the nearby island of Tasmania.  They have the most powerful bite for their size of any animal on Earth.  They are carnivores and hunt wallabies and other small animals.  Their closest relative is the now exticnt Marsupial Lion.  So now Tasmanian Devils are the biggest carnivorous marsupial.

Tasmanian Devils live basically solitary lives, but they will sometimes share a kill but it is a grumpy sharing with the different individuals snapping at each other etc.  Tasmanian Devils can also make a sort of cross between a scream and a roar.  It sounds really scary.  It makes me think of a young cougar.

Tasmanian Devils have a pouch because they are marsupials.  The young are called Joeys or the more clever...imps.  A breeding mother Tasmanian Devil can produce around 50 babies that are very tiny.  In fact, at birth, the imps are only about the size of a grain of rice.  Only 4 imps ever manage to make it to the teats to begin to suckle.  The other 46 babies die and since they are devils I guess they go to hell.  (That was a joke.)

Bunnyip or Diprotodon?

Bunyip

The Australian Aborigines have a legend of a huge river or billabong dwelling animal that attacks people.  It is called the Bunyip.  Its discription includes various and sometimes conflicting characteristics.  But it has flippers or webbed feet.  It is huge.  It has large saber fangs or tusks.  It has a face shaped something like a crocodile or a huge dog.  It has fur.  It has a horse-like tail. 

Some anthropologists think that the idea for this animal may come from paleontology.  A huge marsupial lived in Australia and went extinct about 45,000 years ago.  It was most closely related to the present day wombat.  But A wombat is small,  This animal, which you could call a giant wombat, was huge.  It is called Diprotodon.  The name means two forward teeth.  It was 3 meters or 9.8 feet long.  It weighed around 2,790 kg. or 6,150 lbs.  It was 2 meters or 6 feet 7 inches tall.  This makes Diprotodon the biggest marsupial ever to have lived on Earth.   The below drawing is of a female or Diprotodon Mother carrying her young.  The young is referred to as a joey...like a young kangaroo.
Notice the joey in the pouch.

Diprotodon Mother

Diprotodon with Joey
(NOTE:  This drawing is probably more accurate since the closest relative
to a Diprotodon is a wambat and wambat pouches face backwards.  Notice the
little joey sticking his or her nose out of the pouch below the tail.)

It was a peaceful plant eater.  It may have been preyed upon by the marsupial lion.  It probaly could outclass the marsupial lion if it was fully grown but certainly its young would have been vulnerable.  The Diprotodon was an herbivore and lived in herds.  There was sexual dimophism which means the males were a bit different from the females.  In this case the males were larger.  So the males might have fought each other to compete for females or fore dominance in the herd.

Diprotodon skeletons have been found all over Australia so it was very successful for many years.  The fossils date from 1.6 million years ago to 45,000 years ago.  Since Australia started to dry up starting 350,000 years ago there is some thought that Diprotodon went exticnt because change of climate and the disappearnce of the vegetation type they preferered.  Now Australia is the dryest continent on Earth.  The of hunting by early Man may have been a contributing factor as well.  Man is thought to have come into Australia 50,000 years ago.  ONE Diprotodon would have feed an entire tribe for a week.

By the way, if you thought that date for the Aborigines coming to Australia was a typo, it was not.  The Australian Aborigine culture is the longest existing intact culture on Earth.  The Aborigines have referred to fossils of Diprotodon as Bunyip.  So maybe the more recent Aborigines have seen the fossils and come up with the idea of Bunyips.  But there is also a possibility that the idea of Bunyips comes from an ancient memory of Diprotodon that was passed down over the millenia.   And of course, maybe someday we will confirm the existence of a large . . . previously unknown to science. .... predator species living in billabongs and rivers of Australia.  Then we will know that Bunyips are real.  For now there is no scientific proof of Bunyips.

By the way, a billabong is a lake or pond.  .   .   . not just a brand of clothing.

One more interesting fact.  Some Aborigines identify a type of animal on very ancient cave paintings as a Binyup.  Since their culture has been around at least 50,000 years, they can DO that.  I think that is truly amazing!

NOTE:  The printable versions of these new drawings are found by clicking the buttons up top.  Specifically the All Printables button and the Paleontology Button... and the Fantasy Myths and Circus button.   New drawings are at the bottom of the lists.

Zaglossus hacketti the Large Spiny Anteater

Zaglossus 

Zaglossus hacketti was a large monotreme.  Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs like the platyplus.  The Zaglossus hacketii is now extinct.  It was endemic to Australia.  That means it was from that place only.  it was about a meter long. . . that is just over a yard.  It weighed about 30 kg or 66 lbs.  It was 60 cm tall.  That is around 24 inches tall.  So about 2 feet tall and three feet long.  As far as we know it was the largerst monotreme ever to live on Earth.  

The more well known platypus is much smaller at only about 20 inches or 50 cm.  I think I will draw a duck bill platypus next. 

The Zaglossus was a type of echidnas.  Echidnas still live on Earth, in New Guinea, but the three species of living echidnas are much smaller than Zaglossus hacketti.  The living echidnas are also called spiny anteaters.  So like its non extinct relatives, Zaglossus fed on ants and termites.  The termite mounds in Australia can be huge.   Some of the smaller termite mounds are depicted in my drawing.  Zaglossus lived in what is now Western  Australia.  Echidnas have a long mouth or snout that is both nose and mouth.  They have a long sticky tongue they use for catching termines and ants.  

One more unusual fact.  The living echidnas have the second lowest body temperature of any mammal at 33 degrees Celsius or 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit.  

NOTE:  The printable version is available by clicking on either the All Printables button ....or the Animals button ... or the Paleontology button... up at the top of this blog page.  Scroll down because new drawings are at the bottom of the lists.  This is an extinct animals but it looks so much like the modern Spiny Anteaters that I put it on both the Paleontolgy and Aniamls page.