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Paleontologists have actually uncovered and analyzed a fossilized leg bone of a phorusrhacid bird that lived 12 million years earlier in South America.
A design of Paraphysornis at the Natural History Museum Vienna. Image credit: Armin Reindl/ CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fear birds are members of Phorusrhacidae, a household of big, meat-eating, flightless birds within the order Cariamiformes.
These extinct birds had a large body mass, approximately 70 kg, and were in between 0.9-2 m(3-6.6 feet)in height.
They had slim bodies and special locomotor adjustments for cursoriality.
Their tremendous beak and the mechanical adjustments of their skull recommend they were effective predators.
They lived in South America throughout the Cenozoic, however they are likewise understood from the Plio-Pleistocene of North America and the Eocene of Africa.
Phorusrhacidae includes practically 20 types in 14 genera and 5 subfamilies (Brontornithinae, Mesembriornithinae, Patagornithinae, Phorusrhacinae, and Psilopterinae).
Their closest living loved ones are thought to be seriemas, the sole living family members Cariamidae.
“Terror birds survived on the ground, had actually limbs adjusted for running, and primarily consumed other animals,” stated Dr. Siobhán Cooke, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Completion of a horror bird’s left tibiotarsus discovered in Tatacoa Desert, Colombia. Image credit: Degrange et aldoi: 10.1002/ spp2.1601.
The fossilized leg bone of a horror bird was discovered in the 2000s in the fossil-rich Tatacoa Desert in Colombia.
The fossil go back to the Miocene date around 12 million years back, and is thought to be the northern most proof of a fear bird in South America so far.
“The size of the bone likewise shows that this fear bird might be the biggest recognized member of the types recognized to date, roughly 5-20% bigger than understood phorusrhacids,” Dr. Cooke stated.
“Previously found fossils show that fear bird types varied in size from 0.9 to 2.7 m (3-9 feet) high.”
The fossil is likewise marked with likely teeth marks of Purussaurusan extinct types of caiman that is believed to have actually depended on 9 m (30 feet) long.
“We believe that the horror bird would have passed away as an outcome of its injuries offered the size of crocodilians 12 million years back,” Dr. Cooke stated.
The horror bird likewise co-existed with primates, hoofed mammals, huge ground sloths and armadillo family members, glyptodonts, that were the size of vehicles.
“It’s a various sort of environment than we see today or in other parts of the world throughout a duration before South and North America were linked,” Dr. Cooke stated.
The group’s paper will be released in the journal Documents in Palaeontology
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Federico Javier Degrange et al2024. A massive brand-new horror bird (Cariamiformes, Phorusrhacidae) from Middle Miocene tropical environments of La Venta in northern South America. Documents in Palaeontology 10 (6 ): e1601; doi: 10.1002/ spp2.1601
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