Comments by "Winston Smith" (@kryts27) on "ExtinctZoo " channel.

  1. The killing ratio of Australia's dangerous non-primate species is overhyped. Approximately 50 thousand years ago, a biped arrived in Australia originally from Africa, via South-East Asia with a bit of help from the earliest seafaring voyages. This African biped, only armed with flint and spears, was able to make extinct giant animals like the Diprotodon and Giant Kangaroos, as well as competing predators such as the Thylacoleo (marsupial lion) and the giant monitor lizards (fun fact, monitors are still in Australia, but are now smaller). The most dangerous large animal in Australia now is Homo sapiens. As for small venomous animals like snakes and spiders; there are fewer than 50 deaths from snakebite in the whole 21st century in Australia. Spider bites are more common (mainly from the fairly common redback spider and white tailed spider), but less deadly. In Australia's most populated state (New South Wales), there are in excess of 350 road crash deaths in a year (last in 2023). So comparing road crash deaths in New South Wales alone versus snake bite, the risk of being killed in a road accident compared to snake bite is over 160 times higher. Also many Australian cars are modern, imported recent models from Japan and South Korea, with the best safety features on offer such as front, rear and curtain airbases and driver assist.
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  2. The story of birds is the story of mammals in the KT extinction event. Birds were the apex predators in the age following the Cretaceus, i.e. the Paeloeocene. Super hunter birds back then. Remember, as amniotic terrestrial vertibrates, the sauropsids (birds and reptiles and Mesozoic dinosaurs) as for example the order Aves (birds) over mammals; there are approximately 50% more bird than mammal species currently in existance. Birds are awesome.
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