The largest bird in the world already has a name . It has been baptized as Vorombe titan (which means ‘great bird’ in Malagasy and Greek) and this species of elephant bird that weighed as much as a dinosaur, walked the lands of Madagascar more than 1,000 years ago during the late Quaternary, according to a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
It was very large: it was ten feet tall and weighed 800 kilograms (about 7 modern ostriches) and, like the ostrich, this elephant bird could not fly.
The remains of this aviary monster were found in the mid-19th century, but they mistakenly attributed this newly discovered giant to another species of elephant bird ( Aepyornithidae ) known as Aepyornis maximus , according to James Hansford of the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London. and work leader.
“Understanding the diversity in these extinct giant birds has been a taxonomic knot for about 150 years,” says Hansford. Paleontologists were so excited about the discovery of elephant birds in the 1800s and early 1900s that they began naming species left and right, often from incomplete specimens.
TAXONOMIC TANGLE
To shed light on this zoo mess once and for all, Hansford used a tape measure and calipers to analyze hundreds of elephant bird bones found in museums around the world. Some of these bones were broken , so software was also used to fill in those empty spaces.
After plotting the sizes of the bones using the computer program, Hansford discovered that these bones were divided into different groups, revealing three genera (also known as genera) and four different species. He named the newly discovered bird Vorombe titan .
In the past, some scientists argued that the moa, another extinct flightless bird that once inhabited what is now New Zealand, was the largest bird on record. Now, with the discovery of V. titan, there is no question about the record holder.
Aepyornis maximus was previously also thought to be the world’s largest bird, but Vorombe titan is even larger.
As the authors comment in their research, Vorombe titan is so large that its average weight, 650 kg, is comparable to Europasaurus , a small sauropod (a long-necked dinosaur), which weighed around 690 kg.
When herbivorous elephant birds became extinct about 1,000 years ago, largely due to human hunters, Madagascar’s ecosystem changed. The plants, which depended on birds to eat and disperse the seeds, were hopelessly wilted.
Elephant birds “certainly had a significant impact on the creation and maintenance of the landscape in ancient Madagascar, ” says Hansford.
“Without an accurate understanding of past species diversity, we cannot adequately understand evolution or ecology in unique island systems like Madagascar or reconstruct exactly what has been lost since the arrival of humans. Know the history of biodiversity loss it is essential to determine how to conserve today’s threatened species, “adds Samuel Turvey, co-author of the study.
Reference: James P. Hansford , Samuel T. Turvey. Unexpected diversity within the extinct elephant birds (Aves: Aepyornithidae), and a new identity for the world’s largest bird, Royal Society Open Science, rsos.royalsocietypublishing.or… /10.1098/rsos.181295
Image credit: Jaime Chirinos, 2009 / ZSL
