Fossil of 'Godzilla' platypus found in Australia


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What do you think of when you hear Godzilla? A giant lizard? The “King of Monsters”? The fictional terror of Japan?

Yup, that's the guy. But he apparently has a new competitor… A platypus.

Yeah, you heard it right, the so-called Godzilla Platypus. Remnants of its fossils were recently discovered in Australia — oh and that would be a turtle in its mouth.

Unlike the platypus we know today, the "Platypuszilla" had teeth that allowed it to munch on crayfish, frogs and small turtles. Yikes. A lot of teeth could fit in that mouth.

"So a normal platypus is about half a half a meter long. … But this one was a meter long. They've described it as a platypus on steroids. … So this would have been a super large creature terrorizing the forest." (Via BBC)

Researchers believe "Platapuszilla" is a direct relative to the modern day Platypus. One of the researchers from the University of New South Wales told Sky News, "We'd never seen anything this big so it really knocked our socks off to think that platypus could get this big."

RT notes this is the fourth new animal species discovered in Australia in less than a month.

In late October the leaf-tailed Gecko, a skink and a boulder-dwelling frog were all discovered in a remote area of the continent.

Researchers estimate the “Platapuszilla” lived between 15 and five million years ago.

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