New species of 'terror bird' discovered

[Judi Lynn]

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One of South America’s top predators in its day, the 1.2-meter-tall “terror bird” Llallawavis scagliai (artist’s
representation shown) lived in what is now northeastern Argentina about 3.5 million years ago.

H. Santiago Druetta
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New species of 'terror bird' discovered
By Sid Perkins 9 April 2015 4:00 pm

Famed for their large hooked beaks and a presumed taste for meat, flightless phorusrhacids, also known as “terror birds,” were among South America’s top predators before going extinct about 2.5 million years ago. Now paleontologists have unearthed one of the most complete fossils of a phorusrhacid to date. The skeleton of the new species, dubbed Llallawavis scagliai, is approximately 95% complete, giving scientists the ability to study a terror bird’s anatomy in unprecedented detail. Analyses of the well-preserved remains are already providing insights into the bird’s hearing ability, scientists say.

“It’s rare to find such a complete fossil of anything, let alone a bird,” says Lawrence Witmer, a vertebrate paleontologist at Ohio University, Athens, who wasn’t involved in the new study. “This is a very exciting find.”

The fossil, which is missing only a few wing and toe bones and the tip of its stubby tail, was excavated in northeastern Argentina in 2010 from material laid down as sediment about 3.5 million years ago. L. scagliai likely lived in an open environment, possibly a grassland or a sparse forest through which small rivers flowed, says Federico Degrange, a paleo-ornithologist at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina and lead researcher on the study.

The new species of terror bird weighed an estimated 18 kilograms (about 40 pounds) and stood about 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall, Degrange’s team reports in the current issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. That’s a moderate size for a terror bird, Degrange notes; at least one other species in the group grew more than 2 meters tall and weighed 70 kg or more.

More:
http://news.sciencemag.org/paleontology/2015/04/new-species-terror-bird-discovered

Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122837757

[Gothmog]

1. Cool article

These birds were the apex hunter/killers in their time