Fossil find: Skeleton of towering ‘terror bird’ found exquisitely preserved

OPINION:

It’s a bodacious and big-beaked bird, that’s for sure. Scientists studying the skeleton of an ancient South American “terror bird” are describing it as “exquisitely preserved.” Indeed, over 90 percent of the creature’s bony structure is intact, revealing such details as voice box, trachea and the complete palate of a carnivorous predator which strolled the Earth some 3.5 million years ago.

Wait, terror birds? We’re talking about the “phorusracids.” They were meat-eating and flightless - and stood up to 10 feet high, with sizable hooked beaks. The skeleton was found on a beach on the east coast of Argentina; the scientists now speculate that this particular terror bird had exceptional hearing and stalked prey by listening for incoming footsteps. Based on the anatomy, the formidable critter also had a very low pitched cry.

An artist’s conception of the newly designated “Llallawavis scagliai” depicts it in mid-squawk with jaunty topknot feathers and pointy pink tongue. It is now a cover bird, with some growing fame. The image made the cover of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology which published the study led by Federico “Dino” Degrange of the Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra and the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba - both in Argentina.

Find the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology  here.

In addition, the research team based its conclusions on CT scans and 3-D models of the skull and bone structures. The journal describes the terror birds as the most “predominant predators during the Cenozoic Age in South America and certainly one of the most striking groups that lived during that time.” Find the paper here

There is lots to know about terror birds, which in the pop culture world bear a slight resemblance to Rodan - the classic 1956 sci-fi movie that chronicled the saga of a jumbo-sized flying prehistoric monster.  Some terror birds, incidentally, made their way to the U.S. eons ago. Here is some background, courtesy of the Dept. of Earth Science at Canada’s Carleton University:

“They are popularly referred to as terror birds because of their killing efficiency. They are related to the modern seriema, which is capable of short-distance flights when necessary and runs at speeds greater than 37 miles per hour,” an online account noted.

There are three families now identified - one with a “heavy build with short legs and huge beaks, suggesting they were relatively slow runners.” The medium sized group stood up to 10 feet tall, the smallest a little over three feet. “A gigantic species, Titanis walleri, was found in rocks 1.5 to 2.5 million years old in northern Florida. This beast stood over over 10 feet.

“Terror birds hunted small mammals. They grasped their prey in their beaks and dashed it against the ground to render it unconscious, then swallowed it whole. Seriemas, roadrunners, and secretary birds still practice this feeding technique,” the university research says.