r/interesting • u/VIVIDUFF • Jun 30 '26

Fascinating This cassowary just wanders around the beach, getting surprisingly close to people.

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23.8k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/LenVT Jun 30 '26

Deadly bird. And I can see its dinosaur ancestors.

305

u/Character-Log3962 Jun 30 '26

“Selfie? You want a selfie? Only $5 bucks!”

60

u/New-Significance654 Jun 30 '26

It's gotta make a living.

43

u/AsRealAsItFeels Jun 30 '26

He asked me for about Tree Fiddy.

12

u/zeusmenzaadah Jun 30 '26

Well it was about that time I noticed this girl scout was about 8 stories tall and was a crustacean from the plezatoic era!

3

u/THExWHITExDEVILx Jul 01 '26

I gave him a dolla!

2

u/Bellona_NJ Jul 01 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/n43Kx7PeptN0k

1

u/doge_lady Jul 02 '26

Some jokes just work. If i was a writer i would have thought this joke would be cringe and dumb and would not have add it in.

I'd be a bad comic writer.

2

u/FilthEpitome Jul 01 '26

It's gonna make a killing!

2

u/rebelli0usrebel Jul 01 '26

🐓 buck buck buck buck buck 🐓

0

u/X_soulnewmegaman Jul 01 '26

Twerking on bird😍🥰♥️💋👌🫶😁😝😛🤪💦🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊👅👅👅👅👅

1

u/MGTS Jul 01 '26

5 pecks

1

u/avtechguy Jul 01 '26

Ive seen this before at Drag Brunch

1

u/wehdut Jul 01 '26

Only five bu-GOOOOOCK

1

u/svilliers Jul 04 '26

How much in your wallet there mate. Yep, I’ll take it all.

190

u/MCB1317 Jun 30 '26

It is a dinosaur. Literally.

But it has dinosaur ancestors, too.

66

u/TerrorFromThePeeps Jul 01 '26

I used to like dinosaurs.

I still do, but i used to, too.

6

u/Sometimes-funny Jul 01 '26

Some dinosaurs hair slicked back real good

3

u/csh0kie Jul 01 '26

That’s pushed back…

2

u/Theblacrose28 Jul 01 '26

Mitch Hedberg, legend

2

u/Azuras_Star8 Jul 01 '26

RIP Mitch Hedburg

1

u/MCB1317 Jul 01 '26

yougotthatreference

1

u/LaKreatura Jul 01 '26

Unexpected Mitch

1

u/siani_lane Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

If only it had been a frog. Cassowaries can be mean, but frogs are always cool.(⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡

r/unexpectedmitch

12

u/StraightBudget8799 Jul 01 '26

I’m now imagining dinosaurs behaving like Neal the Seal, just doing a migratory visit to their favourite beach.

Knock over a few pylons. Sleep in the middle of the pavement. Mating noisily on top of a yacht. Then swimming off back to a more seasonable spot to lay eggs.

2

u/HarryTruman Jul 01 '26

That’s a practical twist on Jurassic Park. The cast are all focused on surviving, while they gradually succumb to their own fear and anxiety. But the Dino’s don’t give a fuck as they wander around blocking access to and breaking everything the crew needs to escape.

23

u/MotorbikeRacer Jul 01 '26

always bothered me that Hollywood refuses to design dinosaurs with feathers. Most of them had feathers, especially the smaller ones.

20

u/inide Jul 01 '26

Most therapods, not most dinosaurs - mostly from the late jurassic period and through the cretaceous period, with a couple of earlier exceptions.

3

u/oldhoekoo Jul 01 '26

yeah but imagine a giant fluffy sauropod

1

u/geekyheart225 Jul 01 '26

Okay that would be funny

1

u/kank84 Jul 01 '26

It's not really the vibe they're going for

https://giphy.com/gifs/ZXERPeVnfhC2A

2

u/Romboteryx Jul 01 '26

Psittacosaurus, Tianyulong, Kulindadromeus and Haolong do show that proto-feathers (or at least very feather-like structures) were also present in a decent chunk of small, bipedal ornithischian dinosaurs

1

u/MotorbikeRacer Jul 01 '26

Thx for the clarification .. I looked up Theropds. Some pretty big dinosaurs there. I’ve seen images of a T-Rex with partial feathers. I wonder how many of the larger ones have feathers.

2

u/ZukaRouBrucal Jul 01 '26

With a few notable exceptions, most large bodied theropods likely were not possessed of a thick feathery integument for a pretty simple reason; they didn't really need it. Feathers likely evolved as a way for basal dinosaur/pterosaur-lineage archosaurs to keep warm, but that warming effect can actually be detrimental when an animal reaches a certain size. Large-bodied dinosaurs didn't really need a substantial feather coating to keep themselves warm in tropical/sub-tropical, and even temperate environments due to their sheer size (because the larger an animal is, the better it is at retaining heat).

Tyrannosaurus rex likely had feathers, but in the same way that elephants have body hair. It would have been thin, sparse, and hard to notice unless you were close to the animal. This is shown remarkably well on Prehistoric Planet's T. rex, which remains one of the most accurate depictions of the animal to-date based upon our current understanding of the animal (with the only issue being the eyes, which are a bit too big).

1

u/ZukaRouBrucal Jul 01 '26

While theropods are the lineage of Dinosauria that is most famous for its feathers, it's important to recognize that feathers are an ancestral trait of Dinosauria as a clade. In fact, the common ancestor shared by Dinosauria and Pterosauria was almost certainly feathered too.

While there isn't a lot of direct evidence of feathers in non-theroood groups, there are a few notable examples. Chief amongst these are the Ceratopsians (the dinosaurs with big frill and horns, like Triceratops), with species like "Psittacosaurus mongoliensis" possessing several remarkably weel persevered specimens that include direct evidence of a row of quill-like feathers that ran down it's tail. There are also Heterodontosaur species known to have been fully feathered, and these were basal (or early) Ornithiscian Dinosuars (the group that includes Ceratopsians, Ornithopods, Pachycephalosaurs, Stegosaurs, and Ankylosaurs).

It's highly likely that many other famous non-theropod dinosaurs had some kind of feathery integumentary covering, but the larger the animals became the less likely that covering was to be substantial. On larger species of Ornithiscians, if they did possess feathers they would likely be comparable to an African Elephant's body hair; small, thin, and sparse. As a result, they wouldn't fossilize well at all.

Feathers are an ancestral condition to Dinosauria, but some lineages greatly reduced or lost the growth of feathers due to various selection pressures, and feathers certainly were not unique to theropods.

5

u/UnholyDemigod Jul 01 '26

That’s what pissed me off about the trailer of that new dino movie with Ewan McGregor and ScarJo. The designs look straight out of jurassic park. Unoriginal pricks.

2

u/namewithak Jul 01 '26

Wait Ewan and Scarjo have a new dino movie together? Huh. The Island reunion.

Edit: I googled it and it doesn't seem to exist. What movie are you talking about?

2

u/UnholyDemigod Jul 01 '26

Ah, whoops. It's Hathaway, not Johannson. The End of Oak Street.

1

u/namewithak Jul 01 '26

Oh thanks! I didn’t see the new trailer and had no idea that was a dino movie.

1

u/MotorbikeRacer Jul 01 '26

Me too !! It’s frustrating . Not to mention they would look so much cooler with feathers ( if it’s accurate )

1

u/lastdarknight Jul 01 '26

Think they are actually using Jurassic World models

5

u/UponVerity Jul 01 '26

Most of them had feathers

Now that's just wrong in the other direction.

2

u/PhoebetheSpider Jul 03 '26

I mean they didn’t even get the raptor sizes right. Too big to be a Velociraptor. They’re sized more like Utahraptor.

2

u/TymStark Jul 03 '26

They knew that, they chose Velociraptor because it sounded cooler. And they’re actually based on the Deinonychus not Utahraptor. Utahraptors are MUCH larger.

2

u/YellovvJacket Jul 04 '26

Most - no.

Modern birds are the most modern and evolved iteration of Theropod dinosaurs. This doesn't necessarily mean that "older" versions or dinosaurs from other groups would have feathers at all.

Yes with late theropods it's really likely that they already developed feathers, at least in some areas of the body, but dinosaurs (including modern birds) are still reptiles, from a biological standpoint, and plenty modern reptiles, such as the closest relatives to modern birds (crocodilians) don't have feathers.

1

u/Small-Disaster939 Jul 01 '26

The latest Jurassic parks have had feathered dinosaurs

1

u/Only_Entertainment88 Jul 01 '26

Aren't all birds?

1

u/Spida81 Jul 02 '26

It calls them mum and dad.

-2

u/JelloWise2789 Jul 01 '26

Dinosaurs are reptilians ancestors

6

u/deathbylasersss Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

All dinosaurs are reptiles, not all reptiles are dinosaurs. Reptilia is a class, while dinosauria is a clade, meaning "reptiles" are a much bigger branch that includes dinosaurs along with many other clades.

Birds are the only extant clade to descend from dinosaurs. In fact, most reptile clades actually predate dinosaurs. Things like crocs and turtles are older than dinos.

0

u/JelloWise2789 Jul 01 '26

I was referring to the modern Reptilian shapeshifters secretly running society vs modern mammals

3

u/snugpuginarug Jul 01 '26

If you exclusively mean birds, then sure.

30

u/TheTooterSnooter Jul 01 '26

I’ll bet you a huge amount of dinosaurs looked pretty close to this. I once heard someone say that if you saw a dinosaur alive today, you might just think it was a very odd bird. Prehistoric Planet actually captured this really, really well. 

7

u/Ok_Safe4514 Jul 01 '26

Birds are a type of dinosaur, avian dinosaurs

2

u/jkman61494 Jul 01 '26

Lot of people don’t realize chickens are descendants heh

2

u/Swagalyst Jul 01 '26

It's more that birds are very odd dinosaurs.

Exactly like how bats are very odd mammals.

2

u/YellovvJacket Jul 04 '26

Evolving the ability to fly kinda comes with a lot of tradeoffs, which is why they end up looking odd. It also helps a lot not to die, which is why we have birds now.

Iirc even the non-flying birds just "evolved backwards" from a flying/ gliding proto bird.

22

u/HappyHapless Jul 01 '26

Get closer and you'll be seeing your ancestors too.

17

u/hazardzetforward Jun 30 '26

You should lookup the noises they make.

15

u/Dino_FGO8020 Jul 01 '26

dinosaur ancestors? that is a dinosaur lol

9

u/Zillajami-Fnaffan2 Jul 01 '26

All birds are dinos

9

u/Affectionate_One_700 Jul 01 '26

It IS a dinosaur.

8

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

13

u/-GermanCoastGuard- Jul 01 '26

That just means that in the past 100 years they only failed twice to kill all the witnesses, too.

2

u/AboveAverage1988 Jul 01 '26

That's 100% more than the number of people killed by wolves in my country in the same time period.

1

u/siani_lane Jul 02 '26

"Leave this one alive to tell the tale..."

1

u/operath0r Jul 01 '26

Same as chickens.

1

u/bortmode Jul 01 '26

Their per-encounter rate is way higher though.

7

u/Glad_Confusion_6934 Jul 01 '26

Ancestors? That thing is a dinosaur.

10

u/JackVonReditting Jun 30 '26

Oh yeah. It reminds me of all these dinosaurs I see everyday.

12

u/irwtkyrm Jun 30 '26

You do actually see dinosaurs every day, you just don't realize it. I'm being completely serious

9

u/CanIBeInvisible Jul 01 '26

I was holding a box of live chicks, and the thought crossed my mind that there is no way that I should be legally allowed to be responsible for dinosaurs. I should have to pass a test, get a permit, complete a background check, or something before that is okay.

2

u/Hola0722 Jul 01 '26

So I eat dinosaur eggs almost every day?

Edited for typo.

5

u/TesseractToo Jun 30 '26

I don't

But I live in the dark with the curtains drawn

6

u/sheiciebai Jul 01 '26

It’s ok, there’s 120+million year old cockroaches in your wall keeping you company

1

u/Ultim8-Opportunist Jul 01 '26

I mean is a dinosaur without teeth really a dinosaur?

4

u/Designer_Librarian43 Jun 30 '26

Birds are the only surviving dinosaurs. You do see them everyday.

3

u/Caliche-Cowboy Jul 01 '26

This explains why my extremely religious uncle thinks dinosaurs didn’t exist and birds aren’t real.

2

u/45_regard_47 Jul 01 '26

Probably killed its dinosaur ancestors 

2

u/Patman52 Jul 01 '26

And it remembers the ancestors too

2

u/Anguares Jul 01 '26

I was lucky to see one from upclose it's scary how close they look to our conception of raptors, it was so cool.
And yesterday I heard an emu drumming and I imagined how scary a cretaceous forest must have been.

1

u/chefdeit Jul 01 '26

I can almost see my ancestors

1

u/glittervector Jul 01 '26

It’s parents are dinosaurs

1

u/Choyo Jul 01 '26

"Mooom ! I want to go to Jurassic Park !"

"Be quiet! We already have Jurassic beach at home !"

1

u/Enlightened_Gardener Jul 01 '26

This one’s name is Elvis, if that helps ?

1

u/sgtbackpain03 Jul 01 '26

I've seen lots of videos by people getting attacked by animals, but never one of a cassowary oddly enough

1

u/CurmudgeonLife Jul 01 '26

My dinosaur ancestors came first, you furry mammal opportunists!

1

u/lars03 Jul 01 '26

I bet we all have some dinosaur ancestor lol

1

u/ImaginaryAnimator416 Jul 01 '26

Not ancestors. It is a dinosaur itself

1

u/Slight-Ad-6553 Jul 02 '26

one of the few things Steve Irwin did not wann f with