A New Look At Animals

A New Look at Animals

If you’ve always thought of kangaroos as being adorable and koala bears as cute, you may be in for a shock (1). New fossil discoveries are changing the way some of theworld’s animals are being perceived today.
Fifty million years ago, some familiar animals existed, but in almost unrecognisable forms. For example, whales, which today live in the water, had legsand lived on land, and probably looked like large dogs. During a period of fifteen million years, they gradually moved to living in the sea full-time. Their bodies became sleeker (2), enabling them toswim more efficiently, and their front legs evolved into flippers. The back legs finally disappeared completely, although this probably did not occur until well after they had moved into the sea.Scientists are uncertain why this transition occurred; maybe whales were trying to escape from predators, or perhaps they needed more food or more space than was available on land.
More recently, itappears, some whales were ferocious (3) killers. Twenty-five million years ago, ancestors of today’s peaceful blue whale had razor-sharp teeth, earning it the nickname “T-rex of the ocean”. Some evenmore unusual animals also lived in Australia: for example, 20 million years ago, there were killer kangaroos, and 12 million years ago, there were flesh(4)-eating ducks, nicknamed “The Demon Duck ofDoom”. And a “mere” 50,000 years ago, Australia was home to giant (5) versions of koala bears and kangaroos, in addition to some animals that have since disappeared, such as crocodiles that climbedtrees.
So the next time you *cuddle up to a fluffy stuffed animal, you may want to reconsider. Who knows what we will discover next about bears, or mice like Mickey?

*cuddle up to: sit or lie veryclose to

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