The AP and Reuters both have stories out, without byline, saying that University of New South Wales paleontologists have found the fossils of some creatures, dead for 10 to 20+ million years now, that would send any pre-teen monster fan (and adults who used to fall into that category) into shivers of delight. AP says they found one bone set that translates to a ten-foot-tall, 881-pound bird now dubbed the “demon duck of doom.”

881 pounds? That’s completely ridiculous.  Look, Associated Press editors, that comes out to almost exactly 400 kilograms and that sends The Tracker into a frenzy. Why in the world would any sane person translate 400 kg, which looks suspiciously like a round-number guess made in metrically-persuaded Australia, into exactly 881 pounds? “Nearly 900 pounds” okay, but 881?! Sheesh. Also included are galloping, saber-toothed carnivorous kangaroos. The story apparently arises in part from a radio interview given by the expedition leader but some googling shows that demon ducks have been reported before. One somehow doubts that demon duck of doom is going to be in any eventual journal paper.

Stories:

AP; Reuters; ABC (Australia) News Melanie Christiansen;

See Also: AP has done dumb conversion of numbers before: Apr. 20 post PETIT’s PICK — AP: Archeology News from Bosnia; Looks Like a Pyramid Bigger than those Egyptian Things;

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.