Ducks the size of horses

Not a person

I've reading something today which suggested there were ducks the sizes of horses living in Australia about 50,000 years ago.

Any evidence for this? Because my source is questionable - a random facts Facebook feed.

Sofiztikated

Are you fighting them?

Galvasean

Well, yes and no. Technically, they weren't ducks as we know them, but the dromornithidae were huge flightless birds belonging to the anseriformes group (which contains ducks,swans, geese etc.) that lived in Australia at the time.

Capt'n Midnight

Galvasean wrote: »

Well, yes and no. Technically, they weren't ducks as we know them,

But Demon Duck of Doom has a better ring to it

Adam Khor

Yeah, they were the dromornithidae and they were not ducks, although they are classified in the same order (Anseriformes)- according to Wikipedia, the smallest species was as big as a modern day cassowary, which gives you an idea of how huge they were in general.

For actual, bizarre prehistoric ducks you may want to check out the Moa Nalo, which lived in Hawaii until quite recently and were basically giant flightless ducks with turtle-like beaks that occupied the large herbivore niche in the islands. They are often called "giants" but were nowhere as big as dromornithids, being up to 8 kgs for the largest species (Chelychelynechen quassus).



And as if that wasn´t weird enough, there's also the Talpanas lippa duck which was seemingly flightless, almost blind, had a broad, platypus-like beak, and may have been a nocturnal insectivore similar (in lifestyle) to the modern Kiwi.

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Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses or 100 horse sized ducks?

Adam Khor

Emmie Hot Mucus wrote: »

Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses or 100 horse sized ducks?

I bet duck-sized horses still bite harder :pac:

Capt'n Midnight

I saw some ducks that were the size of this horse

Adam Khor

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I saw some ducks that were the size of this horse

Sad midget horse is sad