Study identifies largest bird fossil

A fossil recently discovered in Argentina should be the skull of the biggest bird ever found -- a swift, flightless predator over 3 meters tall, scientists reported on Thursday.

The skull, tapering to a cruel beak curved like a brush hook, belongs to a previously unknown offshoot of extinct birds known as phorusrhacids, or "terror birds," according to the researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Weighing perhaps 200 kilograms, the bird most likely preyed on rodents the size of sheep that once grazed on the South American savanna 15 million years ago, the researchers told Thursday's Los Angeles Times.

A curious teenager in Argentina discovered the fossil. Measuring more than 71 cm long, the fossil skull is at least 10 percent bigger than the largest previously known species and even bigger than a horse's head, the researchers said.

The fossil also is altering how scientists understand the evolution of South America's largest prehistoric terror birds. Until now, scientists thought that these unusual flightless birds had become more portly and less agile as they evolved into bigger and bigger carnivores.

However, the slender leg and foot bones found with the immense skull closely resemble those of a typical running bird, the researchers reported in the Oct. 26 edition of the journal Nature.

The unbelievable creature was a speedy bird, though it might not run as fast as an ostrich, according to Luis Chiappe, director of the museum's Dinosaur Institute who documented the find.

Source: Xinhua