Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Largest Avian Skull Runs Rings Around Agility Theory
Los Angeles (USA), 30 October: A horse-sized fossil skull of an extinct giant terror bird with a vicious eagle-like bill, together with an associated limb bone, is challenging views about the running agility of these flightless birds. The skull of this gigantic phorusrhacid is from the middle Miocene (about 14 million years ago) and is described in a Brief Communication in this week's Nature.
Phorusrhacids, large carnivorous flightless birds, were dominant predators in South America during the Cenozoic. This example of a phorusrhacid skull from the mid-Miocene is almost complete and is 716 millimeters in length, making it the largest known avian skull; it is estimated to be around 10% larger than previously reported members of its family. Luis Chiappe and colleagues claim that the somewhat portly reconstructions of gigantic phorusrhacids based on their smaller relatives are unwarranted and that assumptions about body size and running ability need to be re-evaluated in light of their find.
(ResearchSEA)
Phorusrhacids, large carnivorous flightless birds, were dominant predators in South America during the Cenozoic. This example of a phorusrhacid skull from the mid-Miocene is almost complete and is 716 millimeters in length, making it the largest known avian skull; it is estimated to be around 10% larger than previously reported members of its family. Luis Chiappe and colleagues claim that the somewhat portly reconstructions of gigantic phorusrhacids based on their smaller relatives are unwarranted and that assumptions about body size and running ability need to be re-evaluated in light of their find.
(ResearchSEA)
# posted by mediabhartiwebsolutions @ 4:38 AM 
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