there were a few around back before they all went extinct 10,000 or so years ago at coincidently the same time the brothers showed up on the continent
3m tall carnivorous kangaroos that would kick you to death before eating your face off, marsupial lions, etc. In kiwiland there was an eagle big enough to carry a 10 year old child away until the maori arrived and discovered the joy of giant eagle egg omelettes. But sexual trait selection is a big driver of evolution too, and having double cone eyes that are quite good at seeing bioluminescence and colour discrimination makes me wonder if they overlooked this possibility in their short speculation
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Fri 30 Oct 2020, 12:59,
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They report the male and female biofluoresced in the same patterns and intensity, which is less likely if sexual selection was a main evolutionary driver.
My own theory is that the fluorescence only appears in dead animals like the museum specimens they examined (though they address that point in relation to diurnal v New World gliding squirrel specimens kept in the museum). This probably evolved so a now extinct necrophilic predator would leave the non fluorescent living platypuses alone.
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Mudface The web isn't callipygian, Fri 30 Oct 2020, 14:50,
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