CANBERRA: If Steven Spielberg wants a locale for a scary new sequel to Jurassic Park and The Lost World, he could consider Queensland, which 20 million years ago was overrun by flesh-eating kangaroos and crocodiles that leaped from tree branches on their victims.

The flesh-eating kangaroo, or Ekaltadeta, had lower front teeth that Professor Mike Archer, an Australian biologist, says ``were as sharp as stilettos''. One of its early cousins, the Fangaroo, had to develop big fangs to defend itself against hungry relatives. In those times about 20 million years ago Australia also had crocodiles that lived in trees. ``Arboreal crocodiles,'' Archer calls them.

Home alone

HONG KONG: One of 10,000 Chinese homing pigeons let loose in Hong Kong to celebrate its July one handover from Britain to China arrived home in the far north-east of the country after a marathon 35 days on the wing.

The bird should have taken a week to cover the 3,000-km journey but it took five times longer and got home to the city of Harbin just last Monday, the South China Morning Post newspaper said. It was the only one among 174 harbin pigeons that has made it home from Hong Kong.

On the handover day 10,000 pigeons from 31 Chinese cities were set free at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, but stormy weather confused the birds and many did not even leave the territory.

Biggest bird

SYDNEY: The fossilised skeleton of what is claimed to have been the biggest bird that ever lived has been found and assembled by a museum in northern Australia, palaeontologists said today. The existence of the ostrich-like dromornis stritoni has been known for years, but the specimen found at Alcoota near Alice Springs would have been as heavy as a bullock and as tall as an elephant -- a third bigger than anything previously discovered.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.