Community Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: D_Average on August 24, 2010, 03:29:42 AM
Title: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: D_Average on August 24, 2010, 03:29:42 AM
(You are allowed to debate and change votes)
Artifact in question (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/last-giant-land-turtle#ixzz0xOiixF3G)
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: Mop it up on August 24, 2010, 04:42:01 AM
A marketing gimmick gone horribly wrong, perhaps?
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: Stratos on August 24, 2010, 05:39:11 AM
Proof that Miyamoto is much older than we think. I bet Yamauchi had one as a pet.
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: D_Average on August 24, 2010, 11:43:56 AM
This just reminded me that I started a TMNT club as a kid. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I believed Leonardo was Jesus or something. I even had a pet turtle. Anyone else have one? They were surprisingly fun. Especially watching them chase gold fish. However, do you remember the smell? Man. I can only describe that smell as "nasty death". If it wasn't for the smell, I'd run out and buy one today.
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: Halbred on August 24, 2010, 01:36:50 PM
How is this not in the Paleo-news thread?
Meiolania is not new. The new information here is that it lived a lot longer off the coast of Australia than we previously realized. Even THAT information is not new. Lord Howe Island has turned up dozens of specimens over the years.
Wired is very late to this particular party. But yeah, Meiolania does look kind of like Bowser. One wonders why it developed the armored, clubbed tail, thick shell, and horns on the back of the skull. What was it protecting itself from?
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on August 24, 2010, 02:37:18 PM
Obligatory answer first: plumbers. Second, perhaps some megafauna predators that the species outlived, especially on islands? But then, wouldn't the species have begun to lose the armor without selective pressure? Maybe the species began to see the armor as "sexy." I mean, it stands to reason that whatever adaptations increase survivability should as a side effect be seen as attractive features in a mate, right? Then again, without predator driven selection as a factor, wouldn't that have created a feedback loop like what supposedly happened with birds of paradise? Maybe their lifespans were long enough to prevent that by allowing multiple generations to compete for mates at the same time.
I probably should have just stuck with my first answer.
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: TheBlackCat on August 24, 2010, 04:36:26 PM
So humans reach a new area, wipe out most of the large land animals. All that is really news is the type of the animal we wiped out in this case.
Title: Re: Isn't There A Thread On The 50,000 Year Old Koopa Shell Yet?
Post by: D_Average on September 06, 2010, 10:30:27 AM
Halbred laid the smack down. Very impressive. Feel free to move topic, I was delirious that night.
You should seriously create a website where you hold up weird crap like Meiolania and explain it via pop culture references like Bowser 64 and what we know about it at the moment.
I'd go to that website. You could possibly get rich off it too. Then send us free games every now n again.....just like the way i used to toss little gold fish in my fast swimming turtle tank back in the day.
