Some of today’s best hunting animals have beaks, a body covered in feathers, and whether or not they have the ability to fly, they can be very dangerous predators. Eagles, hawks, vultures or the cassowary, considered the most dangerous bird, are majestic species. But if we look back in time, our planet has seen larger and more dangerous species walk and fly than we can see today. So were the three most dangerous birds of prehistory.
Pelagornítidos
This family, Pelagornithidae , encompasses several genera and species of so-called bone-toothed birds: the largest seabirds in history. The smallest species would be similar in size to albatrosses, the largest flying birds today. The largest pelagornithids were true giants of the skies, with wingspans that could exceed 6 meters.
Fossil remains of these birds have been found in various areas around the globe. Their existence is framed chronologically from the end of the Paleocene, about 60 million years ago, until about 2 million years ago , so they coexisted with Homo habilis .
The description of birds “with bone teeth” comes from the sharp teeth that accompany the bone morphology of the long beaks that we can observe in the skulls of these species. This characteristic, together with its enormous size, made this family of seabirds formidable predators that would dominate the skies and sea surfaces, hunting fish and squid.
In 2020, a study was published on fossil remains found on Seymour Island, on the Antarctic Peninsula. The research team argued that it was not only one of the largest seabirds, but that we can count it among the largest flying birds that have ever existed on our planet:
“Our discovery of these fossils, with wingspans estimated at 5-6 meters, shows that birds evolved to truly gigantic size relatively quickly after the extinction of the dinosaurs and ruled the oceans for millions of years.”
kelenken william
With about 180 kilos of weight and more than 2 meters in height, this carnivorous bird could be the largest of the Phorusrhacidae family, known as terror birds.
It lived about 15 million years ago and its scientific name honors Guillermo Aguirrezabala, the boy who found fossil remains of the species located in Patagonia one day in March 1999.
The skull of this predator measured 70 centimeters and its powerful legs would allow it to reach 70 kilometers per hour. In other words, we are dealing with a species of giant ostrich with a much more developed beak that could well hunt a horse. That is why Kelenken guillermoi is considered a South American apex predator . Their existence occurred during the Middle Miocene in areas where mammalian predators were previously believed to be at the top of the food chain. However, this terror bird would be a dangerous rival to beat.
Argentavis magnificens
It flew over the Argentine pampas and Patagonia during the Upper Miocene, between 8 and 6 million years ago. This mix between an eagle and a giant vulture weighed about 70 kilos, was about a meter and a half tall and, with a wingspan that could reach 8 meters, would be the largest flying bird in the history of our planet .
Due to its characteristics, the researchers believe that it was not a very fast bird. It was able to travel at an average speed of 70 kilometers per hour in flight (the peregrine falcon can fly at almost 400 kilometers per hour). Due to its size and body mass, specialists believe that, like current condors and vultures, it could not take flight from a static position, nor stay in the air based on continuous flapping, but would depend on currents. and take advantage of slopes or high points to take off. Instead, they were excellent gliders. Its prodigious beak and powerful claws were used both to hunt and to tear the carrion on which it also fed .
References:
Bertelli, S. et al. 2010. A new phorusrhacid (Aves: Cariamae) from the middle Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27, 2, 409-419. DOI: 10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[409:ANPACF]2.0.CO;2.
Chatterjee, S. et al. 2007. The aerodynamics of Argentavis, the world’s largest flying bird from the Miocene of Argentina. PNAS 104, 30, 12398-12403. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702040104.
Kloess, P. A. et al. 2020. Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica. Scientific Reports 10, 18286. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6.
