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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Maori legend turns out to be true, huge man-eating bird extinct just 500 years ago

Maori legend turns out to be true, huge man-eating bird extinct just 500 years ago
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olePigeon
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Sep 15, 2009, 11:30 AM
 
Maori legend of man-eating bird is true - National - NZ Herald News

The world never ceases to amaze me. I wonder if the Native American Thunderbird legend will get a fresh perspective now that we know these gargantuan raptors existed as recently as a few hundred years ago.
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SpaceMonkey
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Sep 15, 2009, 12:21 PM
 
I smell a SyFy Channel original movie.

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Chuckit
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Sep 15, 2009, 01:06 PM
 
I'm sure it's already in preproduction and they've got two former Firefly cast members to star.
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Sep 15, 2009, 01:12 PM
 
     
Doofy
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Sep 15, 2009, 01:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by Chuckit View Post
I'm sure it's already in preproduction and they've got two former Firefly cast members to star.
River Tam needs chicken!
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
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Gavin
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Sep 16, 2009, 01:26 AM
 
or Kaylee's killer c.... er, chicken
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Jawbone54
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Sep 16, 2009, 01:53 AM
 
This scares the crap out of me.
     
Gavin
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Sep 16, 2009, 01:56 AM
 
We HAVE to clone one! Screw condors - I want a flying lion.
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olePigeon  (op)
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Sep 16, 2009, 12:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by Gavin View Post
We HAVE to clone one! Screw condors - I want a flying lion.
I wonder if it has any historical basis for the gryphon.
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Spheric Harlot
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Sep 16, 2009, 01:19 PM
 
Unlikely.
     
olePigeon  (op)
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Sep 16, 2009, 01:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Unlikely.
If I were a medieval peasant, and I saw an eagle the size of a lion swoop down and eat my cow, I might think it was a gryphon or a dragon.
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The Final Dakar
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Sep 16, 2009, 01:55 PM
 
I'd think it was god.
     
olePigeon  (op)
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Sep 16, 2009, 02:39 PM
 
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Spheric Harlot
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Sep 16, 2009, 02:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by olePigeon View Post
If I were a medieval peasant, and I saw an eagle the size of a lion swoop down and eat my cow, I might think it was a gryphon or a dragon.
The earliest references to gryphons date back to well before 2000 BCE.

How many mediaeval peasants alive back then made their way to New Zealand and lived to tell the tale in Europe?
     
olePigeon  (op)
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Sep 16, 2009, 03:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
The earliest references to gryphons date back to well before 2000 BCE.

How many mediaeval peasants alive back then made their way to New Zealand and lived to tell the tale in Europe?
You're assuming the bird was indigenous to New Zealand and wasn't anywhere else.

If there are references to gryphons since before 2000 BCE, it could be that the large raptors were in other parts of the world. It's conceivable that such a large bird could have ended up elsewhere.
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andi*pandi
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Sep 16, 2009, 03:14 PM
 
Or some other similar cool thing.

There was a cool exhibit at the museum of science a while back, Myths and Monsters or something, and it showed how some creatures had basis in real creatures, and how a pod of jumping dolphins, from a distance, could look like a giant sea serpent going through the waves.


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Spheric Harlot
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Sep 16, 2009, 03:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by olePigeon View Post
You're assuming the bird was indigenous to New Zealand and wasn't anywhere else.
From TFA you posted:
New Zealand has no native land mammals because it became isolated from other continents in the Cretaceous, more than 65 million years ago.

As a result, birds filled niches usually populated by large mammals such as deer and cattle.
Europasia and Africa never had a shortage of predatory mammals.
     
olePigeon  (op)
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Sep 16, 2009, 03:21 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
From TFA you posted:

Europasia and Africa never had a shortage of predatory mammals.
Well, there you go.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
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olePigeon  (op)
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Sep 16, 2009, 03:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
Or some other similar cool thing.

There was a cool exhibit at the museum of science a while back, Myths and Monsters or something, and it showed how some creatures had basis in real creatures, and how a pod of jumping dolphins, from a distance, could look like a giant sea serpent going through the waves.
Giant squid would occasionally be brought in fisherman's nets. We know for certain that those weren't just fisherman's tales.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
   
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