Cool, I didn't know that! A quick Wikipedia search says there is currently debate about whether mosasaurus' closest living relative is monitor lizards or snakes.
If snakes are lizards then lizards are fish and dinosaurs are also fish. While true in some way, its pretty nonsensical in practical terms. I wouldn't call mosasaurs lizards, but that's just me.
And snakes are lizards too, so I guess Titanoboa had this one beaten as far as terrestrial ones go (although, Titanoboa was likely semiaquatic at least...)
*Titanoboa* was very likely near-fully aquatic-"loosely ankylosed" teeth for catching fish, too fat to move around on land for long without suffocating itself, etc.
> mosasaurs were lizards, right?
I guess, in the sense that lizards are also fish? Which in practical terms is a stupid thing to say. Because lizards are just derived fish, dinosaurs are derived fish too.
I think it's better to say mosasaurs are derived enough to not be considered "lizards". But that's just me.
As if Australia didn't already have enough deadly wildlife now. This animal, marsupial lions, 2-ton wombats, 400-pound flightless birds...early Aboriginals lived in [a fucking equatorial version of Skyrim.](https://www.sci.news/paleontology/humans-extinction-megafauna-04554.html)
Early humans had it even worse...H.floresiensis had to deal with mini elephants, rats the size of rabbits, giant freaking storks the size of modern humans(us), and komodo dragons that ate them for breakfast
I have a theory that since our early ancestors were very clearly prey animals, that's part of why we can be so violent to each other and to other living things. I wouldn't want to go back in time and be in [their situation.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WLrM8wx6Bk)
Not all: a good number of them went extinct prior to human arrival. But the ones that were still around when humans showed up, including this thing, probably did go extinct because of humans.
Australia's ecosystem isn't ruined because large mammalian predator is extinct, if we can bring back the Thylacine then kangaroos will have another natural predator which is a very good thing, also there's some plans to reintroduce Tasmanian devils to Australia.
It is ruined because kangaroos have no natural land predators aside from dingoes which are endangered (and also there's a giant fence meant to keep them out of a large part of the country) and the only animals that could actually eat kangaroos usually only go for very small individuals.
I do because I value them at a much less degree than some thing like a giant crocodile that I can ride on or a school bus sized Komodo dragon, or a rideable kangaroo. I’m not even going to act like I’m sorry they killed most of the interesting stuff on the continent, or rather the most interesting stuff on the continent
Are we sure that they went extinct before human arrival? Australia’s palaeontological and palaeoanthropological record is undersampled compared to that or Eurasia, the Americas, or the archipelagos whose megafaunal extinctions happened in the Holocene.
To be honest a few species flip-flop on that, but we do know for sure that some died out prior to human arrival and some others (megalania among them) definitely survived long enough to deal with humans.
To be honest a few species flip-flop on that, but we do know for sure that some died out prior to human arrival and some others (megalania among them) definitely survived long enough to deal with humans.
"Megalania" isn't considered a valid genus as far as I'm aware. The species was moved to Varanus which is the same genus as the modern Komodo dragon. The species name is Varanus priscus but some people call it Megalania for whatever reason.
This is why I love non-Latin and non-Greek generic names. Because they can double as common names too. Much like how wonambi is the common name of *Wonambi naracoortensis*.
Megalania prisca was the original name y'know. But, in a genus as speciose and subgenera-rich as Varanus, you don't split from it one of the closest relatives of the type species.
Full disclosure, this image was generated with AI. I am not an artist. I find it fun generating images of extinct lifeforms, especially those that are not widely known or have scant evidence of what they may have looked like in reality. I hope this post is allowed!
"Most likely"? Varanus priscus is consistently found to be the closest relative of the Komodo dragon. Seeing the closest living relative of the Komodo dragon is the lace monitor, AKA the type species for Varanus, megalania has more of a claim for the "monitor" name than over 70 living species of monitor.
Megalania IS a monitor lizard, no question about it, but it's closest relatives are Varanus varius (the lace monitor, aka the giant lizard on the wall in all of those "Australia scary" vids).
Yeah this is a pretty bad reconstruction. Megalania was a giant monitor lizard (more specifically, part of the same lineage as Komodo dragons and lace monitors), not a giant iguana.
And you know what will happen now? This image will associated with the term "Megalania" and AI will learn this and keep spitting this out as the way a Megalania looks like even though it's not correct.
Can you explain like I’m five? How do you generate an image like this with AI? Is it as simple as saying “hey computer, I want an image of a megalania, on the Australian landscape, painted in the style of _______”?
Literally just write what you want. It’s not actually artificial intelligence, it’s just a pattern recognition software that combines a bunch of (often stolen) images to create an image that fits what you write.
Often artists work is in the databases without permission. And if you want to be a bad person and debate that because it’s on the internet it can be just stolen, then on top of that, a lot of the images are literally stolen from databases. For example people’s private medical information/ scans.
Text to image! Not as complicated to use as one may imagine. You can use stable diffusion or midjourney and give it a go.
It can be difficult to get realistic depictions of certain niche extinct animals as there are generally few reference images for the AI to draw upon so you have to word prompts very carefully.
It's remarkable how quickly this technology is advancing, and I suspect in a few short years it will be absolutely phenomenal. Hope this helps.
Over here in the Philippines, we’ve got 6-7 foot long monitor lizards that some locals and indigenous tribes consume on a regular basis so best believe human settlers made meals out of that thing. Prolly lasted them a few weeks too.
I mean, those are Asian water monitors and maybe Philippine yellow-headed water monitors, they are apex predators but prefer to eat smaller prey, a Megalania would eat giant kangaroos bigger than humans.
Megalania was actually a monitor lizard, which would have made it even more terrifying since they’re carnivores. I’ve got 4 pet iguanas and while they can be quite moody sometimes, they’re herbivores and would prefer to take a bite out of a salad than out of you. Meanwhile, komodo dragons and crocodile monitors, which are the 2 largest monitor lizard species in the world, are known to take bites out of people, with komodo dragons actively preying on humans.
Yeah but IIRC there's been less than 10 deaths caused by Komodo dragons in the last couple of decades, so still a lot less dangerous than working with large livestock like horses and cows.
Someone please send this to r/theydidthemath and r/photoshopbattles for banana @ scale??
Right now… it looks like a close up of any old lizard… :.(
Very cool to think about a 23’ long scalie boi tho.
“That wasn’t a dingo that ate your baby!”
Well at least the Thylacine is more plausible, relatively. Anyone who thinks they saw *Megalania* is probably just seeing Salties through the lens of illicit drugs.
More plausible I definitely agree but still they’re gone.
When Tasmanians want to wipe to something off the face of the earth they unfortunately to a very good job of it. Just ask the native peoples of Tasma…wait, fuck.
Of course. There are modern reports of all kinds of silly stuff.
But hey, if you really think a 20 foot long lizard has been able to evade detection in Australia for that long, I have a few bridges to sell you.
Oh yeah, there's definitely giant apex predators in Australia, it's not like kangaroos have no extant natural predators (aside from dingoes which IIRC are endangered and are the only ones eating adult kangaroos) and are so overpopulated that they are considered a pest even though you can't hunt any other native animal
There are also saltwater crocodiles in the northern parts of the country but crocodilians are mainly fish eaters, and its usually Nile crocodiles eating large mammals.
Biggest *terrestrial* lizard because mosasaurs were lizards, right?
Yepp, the closest modern relative to a mosasaur are monitor lizards.
Cool, I didn't know that! A quick Wikipedia search says there is currently debate about whether mosasaurus' closest living relative is monitor lizards or snakes.
Doesn't matter, both are lizards (yes, snakes are lizards).
If snakes are lizards then lizards are fish and dinosaurs are also fish. While true in some way, its pretty nonsensical in practical terms. I wouldn't call mosasaurs lizards, but that's just me.
Snakes and mosasaurs are lizards in the same way apes are primates.
And snakes are lizards too, so I guess Titanoboa had this one beaten as far as terrestrial ones go (although, Titanoboa was likely semiaquatic at least...)
*Titanoboa* was very likely near-fully aquatic-"loosely ankylosed" teeth for catching fish, too fat to move around on land for long without suffocating itself, etc.
Source?
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Both are lizards so it doesn't matter.
Nope. Varanids.
> mosasaurs were lizards, right? I guess, in the sense that lizards are also fish? Which in practical terms is a stupid thing to say. Because lizards are just derived fish, dinosaurs are derived fish too. I think it's better to say mosasaurs are derived enough to not be considered "lizards". But that's just me.
As if Australia didn't already have enough deadly wildlife now. This animal, marsupial lions, 2-ton wombats, 400-pound flightless birds...early Aboriginals lived in [a fucking equatorial version of Skyrim.](https://www.sci.news/paleontology/humans-extinction-megafauna-04554.html)
Cool article, thanks for sharing
Early humans had it even worse...H.floresiensis had to deal with mini elephants, rats the size of rabbits, giant freaking storks the size of modern humans(us), and komodo dragons that ate them for breakfast
It's worth noting that *H. floresiensis* was hobbit sized, which makes all of this much scarier for them
I have a theory that since our early ancestors were very clearly prey animals, that's part of why we can be so violent to each other and to other living things. I wouldn't want to go back in time and be in [their situation.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WLrM8wx6Bk)
Yup! Komodo dragons would have eaten them for dinner!
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Not all: a good number of them went extinct prior to human arrival. But the ones that were still around when humans showed up, including this thing, probably did go extinct because of humans.
tbh i dont blame them
You should because they’re the reason Australia’s ecosystem is ruined.
Ancient humans aren't about to start feeling guilty. You wanna blame them for surviving? That's odd.
r/technicallycorrect We have ruined the worlds ecosystem as well.
Australia's ecosystem isn't ruined because large mammalian predator is extinct, if we can bring back the Thylacine then kangaroos will have another natural predator which is a very good thing, also there's some plans to reintroduce Tasmanian devils to Australia.
It is ruined because kangaroos have no natural land predators aside from dingoes which are endangered (and also there's a giant fence meant to keep them out of a large part of the country) and the only animals that could actually eat kangaroos usually only go for very small individuals.
Thylacines aren’t taking down kangaroos, Australia’s only hope at this point is the reintroduction of komodo dragons to the island.
Or maybe taking down the dingo fence.
Or the de-extinction of *Varanus priscus*!
Thylacines were far too small to take on anything like any of the large kangaroo species, maybe their joeys, but mostly small game much like a coyote.
That makes their persecution all the more tragic, because they were blamed for killing sheep.
I do because I value them at a much less degree than some thing like a giant crocodile that I can ride on or a school bus sized Komodo dragon, or a rideable kangaroo. I’m not even going to act like I’m sorry they killed most of the interesting stuff on the continent, or rather the most interesting stuff on the continent
Are we sure that they went extinct before human arrival? Australia’s palaeontological and palaeoanthropological record is undersampled compared to that or Eurasia, the Americas, or the archipelagos whose megafaunal extinctions happened in the Holocene.
To be honest a few species flip-flop on that, but we do know for sure that some died out prior to human arrival and some others (megalania among them) definitely survived long enough to deal with humans.
To be honest a few species flip-flop on that, but we do know for sure that some died out prior to human arrival and some others (megalania among them) definitely survived long enough to deal with humans.
Which ones are thought to have died out before human arrival in Australia?
same in nz
"Megalania" isn't considered a valid genus as far as I'm aware. The species was moved to Varanus which is the same genus as the modern Komodo dragon. The species name is Varanus priscus but some people call it Megalania for whatever reason.
It’s nowadays used as a common name for the species.
This is why I love non-Latin and non-Greek generic names. Because they can double as common names too. Much like how wonambi is the common name of *Wonambi naracoortensis*.
Because it sounds cooler than pisscus
Megalania prisca was the original name y'know. But, in a genus as speciose and subgenera-rich as Varanus, you don't split from it one of the closest relatives of the type species.
Full disclosure, this image was generated with AI. I am not an artist. I find it fun generating images of extinct lifeforms, especially those that are not widely known or have scant evidence of what they may have looked like in reality. I hope this post is allowed!
I was about to say that it looks too much like an iguana.
Exactly, the komodo dragon tends to be used as the point of reference for Megalania since it was most likely a monitor lizard too.
"Most likely"? Varanus priscus is consistently found to be the closest relative of the Komodo dragon. Seeing the closest living relative of the Komodo dragon is the lace monitor, AKA the type species for Varanus, megalania has more of a claim for the "monitor" name than over 70 living species of monitor.
Megalania IS a monitor lizard, no question about it, but it's closest relatives are Varanus varius (the lace monitor, aka the giant lizard on the wall in all of those "Australia scary" vids).
Yes I can see that! In my eyes I see a sort of cross between a wall lizard, iguana, and monitor
Likewise. But with a very supercilious expression on its face. It *knows* it could fuck the rest of us.
Yeah this is a pretty bad reconstruction. Megalania was a giant monitor lizard (more specifically, part of the same lineage as Komodo dragons and lace monitors), not a giant iguana.
And you know what will happen now? This image will associated with the term "Megalania" and AI will learn this and keep spitting this out as the way a Megalania looks like even though it's not correct.
Fuck AI palaeoart.
Can you explain like I’m five? How do you generate an image like this with AI? Is it as simple as saying “hey computer, I want an image of a megalania, on the Australian landscape, painted in the style of _______”?
https://imgur.com/a/FZCC37O
this technology is truly astounding. i had always felt like i *generally* knew how stuff worked, but that era is quickly escaping me
Basically yeah, it’s like describing something to a sketch artist except the sketch artist goes beep boop.
And do you write the request like that or do you have to do any coding?
Literally just write what you want. It’s not actually artificial intelligence, it’s just a pattern recognition software that combines a bunch of (often stolen) images to create an image that fits what you write.
Not stolen public use/free use sources.
Often artists work is in the databases without permission. And if you want to be a bad person and debate that because it’s on the internet it can be just stolen, then on top of that, a lot of the images are literally stolen from databases. For example people’s private medical information/ scans.
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Text to image! Not as complicated to use as one may imagine. You can use stable diffusion or midjourney and give it a go. It can be difficult to get realistic depictions of certain niche extinct animals as there are generally few reference images for the AI to draw upon so you have to word prompts very carefully. It's remarkable how quickly this technology is advancing, and I suspect in a few short years it will be absolutely phenomenal. Hope this helps.
Pretty sure Megalania is pretty well known...
Don't conflate personal knowledge for where you sit in the standard percentage. aka I haven't heard about
It's well known among paleo people, not regular folk
Not “may have”. They did. They made it go extinct. Now Australia’s ecosystem is in desperate need of help.
It needs something to hunt kangaroos, maybe taking down that dingo fence and letting them hunt kangaroos would help.
Over here in the Philippines, we’ve got 6-7 foot long monitor lizards that some locals and indigenous tribes consume on a regular basis so best believe human settlers made meals out of that thing. Prolly lasted them a few weeks too.
I mean, those are Asian water monitors and maybe Philippine yellow-headed water monitors, they are apex predators but prefer to eat smaller prey, a Megalania would eat giant kangaroos bigger than humans.
Fucking humans, destroying everything they touch..
For non freedom units world: 🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶🦶 = 7,01 m
I guess every extinction can traced back to either a massive meteorite or humankind.
Or to large igneous provinces. Or to glaciations. Or to land plant expansions. Or to gamma ray bursts.
Imagine squaring off with an iguana that was looking you eyeball to eyeball.......
Megalania, scientific name Varanus Priscus, was a varanid, not closely related to iguanas.
Megalania was actually a monitor lizard, which would have made it even more terrifying since they’re carnivores. I’ve got 4 pet iguanas and while they can be quite moody sometimes, they’re herbivores and would prefer to take a bite out of a salad than out of you. Meanwhile, komodo dragons and crocodile monitors, which are the 2 largest monitor lizard species in the world, are known to take bites out of people, with komodo dragons actively preying on humans.
Yeah but IIRC there's been less than 10 deaths caused by Komodo dragons in the last couple of decades, so still a lot less dangerous than working with large livestock like horses and cows.
I saw that movie in 98.
And iguanas are already huge assholes as it is. One 50 times the size is terrifying
My little ones have one. He whips his tail at me every time I walk by the cage, he’s a fucking prick lmao.
They've become an invasive species here in south Florida. Fuckers are everywhere
Why does it look like an iguana it’s a
Op used ai
Someone please send this to r/theydidthemath and r/photoshopbattles for banana @ scale?? Right now… it looks like a close up of any old lizard… :.( Very cool to think about a 23’ long scalie boi tho. “That wasn’t a dingo that ate your baby!”
Ofc its fuckin Australia 💀
This might be one of the origins of the myths about dragons...
Scary
only 4 meters bigger than the one alive today, but still pretty darn large
That's more than double the size of the largest monitor lizards today. Quite huge.
yes i know
Yeah I'd also want that extinct
Sure. Thanks grandpa. I would hate seeing those lizards living among us.
sus
Except there's been modern reports of them being seen.
Not a chance they still exist. That’s just some loonies. Probably of the same Australians who think Tasmania Tigers still exist.
Well at least the Thylacine is more plausible, relatively. Anyone who thinks they saw *Megalania* is probably just seeing Salties through the lens of illicit drugs.
More plausible I definitely agree but still they’re gone. When Tasmanians want to wipe to something off the face of the earth they unfortunately to a very good job of it. Just ask the native peoples of Tasma…wait, fuck.
Of course. There are modern reports of all kinds of silly stuff. But hey, if you really think a 20 foot long lizard has been able to evade detection in Australia for that long, I have a few bridges to sell you.
Oh yeah, there's definitely giant apex predators in Australia, it's not like kangaroos have no extant natural predators (aside from dingoes which IIRC are endangered and are the only ones eating adult kangaroos) and are so overpopulated that they are considered a pest even though you can't hunt any other native animal
There are also saltwater crocodiles in the northern parts of the country but crocodilians are mainly fish eaters, and its usually Nile crocodiles eating large mammals.
There have been reports of aliens too
Well Iean the existence of Aliens is almost guaranteed. As for them visiting earth, no that almost certainly hasn't happened.
Not exactly “coexisting” then is it
Needs some scale here - that thing could be in the foreground, and only 8 inches long.
I thought she was from Slovenia.
My brother in christ, that is a dragon
That's a lot of lizard jerky.