• intensely_human@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  25 days ago

                  So far, it was working. The trail of possums stretched behind them. Where they’d just walked, possums sat hunched on the ground, munching contendedly. Further back, they slept.

                  The only problem was, they still had a long way to go.

                  “Taco check!”

                  “Three” “One” “I’m out”
                  “Me too”

                  Halfway across the field, and they were down to just four tacos left. A new cloud ptossums erupted over the hill, bearing down faster than the group before.

                  “Switch to soakers!”

                  They all carried Super Soaker 50s — courtesy of the Toys R Us — filled with jim beam. Carl and Anne also had the two pistols they’d found, loaded with Peppermint Schnapps.

                  “Remember to pump!” was all Carl had time to cry out before the swarm was upon them.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        25 days ago

        A sort of battlefield drone used by the Raptor Legions. So called because you’d “ptossum” at the enemy where’d they’d wreak havoc

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    26 days ago

    Why do the background creatures look more like modern reconstructions than the creature in the foreground? Lmao

  • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    25 days ago

    How is it that we discover bones of a large flying creature, and first thought is “it looks mammalian, like a flying possum!” And then “nah, that’s ridiculous. It was a flying reptile! Like a DRAGON!”

    Large flying creature, and nobody thinks giant bird? Really?

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 days ago

        the wings were in structure, yes, but i don’t think basically anything else is even remotely similar to bats, maybe the fact that they were fuzzy but like… baby birds are fuzzy too a lot of the time

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    26 days ago

    Omg I would love if they had big possum energy.

    You know, like not dick seagull hustle tactics.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    26 days ago

    I never thought about Mesozoic fauna having external ears. Birds don’t, so presumably their dinosaur ancestors didn’t. But maybe pterosaurs did? (Would we be able to tell by looking for muscle attachment points on their skulls?)

  • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    26 days ago

    In German, we call bats “Fledermaus” (fluttering mouse) and this is the missing link between them and regular mouses. Who would have guessed that of all the peoples in the world, the Germans have been right all this time

    • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      25 days ago

      My dog’s name is Die Fledermaus. He’s a black-and-tan dachshund.

      We call him Maus for short. But he does look like a little bat dog.

    • I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      25 days ago

      Look at samurai era illustrations of lions and leopards. The artists only had the skins to work off, so they used house cats for the faces. And they thought they were the same species, with lions being males and leopards being females.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    24 days ago

    Imagine how archeologists would draw an elephant or a camel if they only had bones to go from.