The bird was the ancestor of modern chickens and ducks.
Scientists discovered leg bones in Australia, which believed to have belonged to the largest bird that ever lived on Earth. According to Science alert, other remains of the bird may still be lying around, waiting to be unearthed.
Paleontologists call this species, Dromornis Stirtoni, an “extreme evolutionary experiment.” He was a “patchwork quilt” of various features: a huge beak was located on a small head, which was located on a body up to three meters high and weighing up to half a ton. These giants inhabited the planet about eight million years ago and were the ancestors of modern chickens and ducks.
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For the first time, scientists managed to find the remains of these “duck demons” articulated, which were located as they once were inside the body. According to scientists, this means that the bird's skeleton was complete at the time of burial.
At the moment, researchers have discovered the legs of the giant bird, but they hope that in the course of further excavations they will be able to discover the remaining part of the skeleton.< /p>
The fossilized bones were discovered in Alkoota Reserve, a dense fossil site 190 kilometers northeast of Alice Springs, home to one of the largest concentrations of terrestrial vertebrate remains in Australia. Although thousands of fossils have been found at the site since excavations began in 1986, most of them are mixed fragments of different species due to historical floodwaters mixing the remains together.
That is, most the fossils discovered here require painstaking sorting and reconstruction work. But such composite structures leave room for error.
Even if scientists manage to correctly identify a species and connect all its bones, there is still the possibility of connecting them in the wrong order. Now scientists have managed to find the legs of the birds, which are almost completely preserved, which will allow them to determine the true proportions of these giants.
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After a preliminary analysis, the researchers assumed that the found legs belonged to a male Dromornis Stirtoni, who was nicknamed Deb. At the same time, scientists intend to conduct additional research to confirm their assumptions.
