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Land of Monsters; What if the Aborigines never tamed it?
Topic Started: Jun 6 2010, 08:45 PM (2,247 Views)
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This concept isn't much "alternative evolution" as it is alternate history, but since it deals with an outcome of an incredibly different environment, I feel it could go here.

As is known, Australia used to have terrifying creatures roaming around about 40,000 years ago, such as (but not limited to) giant wombats, carnivorous kangaroos, land-dwelling crocodiles, and a bird that was bigger than the moa. However, it seems that when the Australian Aborigines rolled around to the island, bringing with them their "technique" of burning grasslands to clear space, most of the megafauna died out. By the time the British rolled in, few creatures got to be bigger than the Grey Kangaroo, or the emu.

So, I present an alternative: What if the Aborigines never arrived? What if Australia remained uninhabited by a permanent race, and the whites were the first people to ever settle there? What might happen to the biodiversity, and how might this have changed the face of modern science?
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dialforthedevil
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maybe not slaves but convicts?
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Holben
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Yeah, that's likely.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

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Margaret Pye
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"never in the history of the modern world has man ever had to fight creatures whuch would take more than a few bullets to kill."

Crocodiles. Bears. Wild boar. Either you're radically underestimating the toughness of these creatures (particularly the crocodiles!) or you're radically overestimating the toughness of Megalania.

Honestly, I think this thread's overestimating the danger factor of Megalania. I can't see why they'd be a bigger threat than surviving predators such as tigers, leopards and crocodiles. Yes, they'd kill a few colonists, but I don't see why they'd require humans to live in military fortifications.
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Kamidio
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Simple. Most humans hate reptiles, mostly the big ones that resemble the malevolent West Eurasian Dragons(Screw Europe, it isn't a continent.).
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The Dodo
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I would think that megalania wouldn't be as big a problem as say a lion. Their cold-blooded and a diprotodon carcass would last one for a while. Though their hatred for reptiles might lead to a pointless cull.
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Kamidio
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Exactly my point.
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The Dodo
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I wonder what they'd think of Quinkana.
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Pando
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How about all the new species that would arise by the time the Europeans came?
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Spinosaurus Rex
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It's only about, what, thousands of years of delay? A lot, sure, but not enough to evolve new species. I don't think, anyway.

Which Quinkana? The normal sized ones or that Quinkana fotirostrum, which is huge?

And how are we overestimating the danger of Megalania? It's a gigantic, 20 fot long lizard! Sure, it's cold-bloded, so it is inactive a lot, but stil...
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MitchBeard
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There wouldn't be any new species that are radically different to what we lost in the megafaunal extinction arising in 50,000 years.
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Carlos
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A period of about 50 thousand years would be quite enough for several new species to evolve; Aldabra as we know it remerged from the sea as recently as that, so all modern species in the island (tortoises, flightless rail, etc.) evolved in the meantime.
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MitchBeard
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I know that it is enough time for new species to evolve, but they wouldn't be anything radically different from what was already there. The new species would be enough to taxanomically classify as new species of course, but ecologically they wouldn't be significantly different from what was already there.
Islands are pretty special places.
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Holben
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Jun 9 2010, 11:37 PM
Simple. Most humans hate reptiles, mostly the big ones that resemble the malevolent West Eurasian Dragons(Screw Europe, it isn't a continent.).
Most humans hate reptiles? I don't know anyone who hates a tortoise. I know one person who hates lizards 'because they scutter', and fear of crocs or snakes is a given. But don't be too sweeping.

Komodos kill people, they're only about 10ft long.
No often, though. Have my posts made magalania seem bad?

Europe can join Asia so long as we become a continent.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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dialforthedevil
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nahh england is so almighty it should be a continent in itself :lol:
is new zealand also left alone since it would make no sense if it wasnt?
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Holben
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Well, perhaps we can have a bit of Wales and Ireland with us? But it's not England if there's no Yorkshire...

Make no sense... Wasn't left alone? Huh?
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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