While the concept of men battling 16–foot prehistoric lizards sounds like something out of a 50’s sci-fi flick, a new discovery in Australia has revealed that such encounters may have occurred. According to a study appearing in Quaternary Science Reviews, researchers from the University of Queensland have found a tiny fossil that belonged to a giant lizard bone 50,000 years ago, indicating that gigantic reptiles and humans once co–existed. The bone – an osteoderm, which grows under the lizard’s skin and serves as internal body armor – was found in one of the Capricorn Caves near Rockingham, Queensland. According to Queensland University Vertebrate Palaeoecologist Gilbert Price, while the 1 cm bone is tiny, it tells a huge story.
“We were really blown away by this discovery!” he told FoxNews.com. “The significance of our finding is that it shows that these big, cold–blooded killers and Australia’s earliest humans were here at the same time.”
Price and his team used radiocarbon and uranium thorum techniques to date the bone at younger than 50,000-years old. Naming what giant lizard it came from, however, has proved more of a challenge, though they’ve narrowed it down to a few likely candidates.
“Even though the osteoderm is only around 1 cm long, we can tell that it’s from a huge lizard, either the Komodo Dragon or an even bigger species called Megalania Prisca,” Price explained. “Most people might not realize that Komodos used to roam all over Australia - in fact, the oldest fossil records suggest that they actually evolved here, some 3.5 million years ago.”
The now–extinct Megalinia, the bigger of the two species, measured between 11 and 16– feet long and thrived in eastern Australia, roaming its forests and grasslands. Using its sharp, curved teeth, the giant reptile fed on a diet of snakes, birds, other reptiles and large mammals. Naturally, this raises the question of whether or not humans were on its grocery list. Price says that while the human/giant prehistoric lizard relationship is still an unknown, he would be surprised if there weren’t regular encounters.
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Poster Comment:
Good and bad information here. Bad information is their bullshit ciruclar reasoning in their dating. Ignore that. The truth is what Christians have known for generations. Humans and dinosaurs, lizards were created days apart so of course they walked the earth at the same time. Duh!
