SYDNEY, May 25 (AFP) - An Australian scientist believes he has uncovered evidence that giant killer ducks prowled the country more than 12 million years ago.
The Bullockornis planei, standing two and a half metres high (8ft), and more closely related to the duck family than emus or ostriches, is regarded as the most fearsome predator since the dinosaurs some 50 million years earlier.
Until recently it was thought the bird, weighing about 300kg (660 pounds) - the same as a medium-sized bear, was a herbivore, using its giant beak to rip through branches and shells of nuts.
But a specimen found in the Northern Territory two years ago has provoked a rethink amongst academics.
"I think there is little doubt now it was eating flesh," said Dr
Steve Wroe, a mammalogist at the Australian Museum.
"Given the size of the bird - its skull and beak and the power
of its jaw muscles - and its ability to rip apart meat and crush
bones it could have eaten anything around at the time," Wroe said.
"If it were simply eating fruit and nuts then they must have
been giant-sized nuts. It would be a case of complete over-design.
"It was probably omnivorous, surviving on a mixed diet of giant
wombats and the different species of kangaroos and possums that were
about at the time as well as fruit and nuts."
Wroe said the creature would have died out as a result of being outcompeted by another animal or the climate and habitat changing fundamentally.
"Australia had a very different climate 12 to 14 million years
ago, when it would have lived.
"The area where the specimen was found consisted of closed
forest and it was significantly wetter with large inland lakes and
rivers," he said.
The so-called 'Thunderbird' will feature as one of the main attractions at the musuem's forthcoming Lost Kingdom exhibition.
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #752
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