An Ice Age bird that weighed twice as much as an ostrich was adapted to water, according to a team of researchers who recently studied the fossils of a creature that went extinct about 45,000 years ago. Based on bones Genyornis newtons found in South Australia’s Lake Callabonna, the animal weighed about 500 pounds (230 kilograms), making it five times heavier than the fearsome southern cassowary. A recent hoard of remains, including a nearly foot-long skull, was found in 2019.
The only other known skull Genyornis it was found in 1913 and was badly damaged. 128 years later, new fossils – and new technology – have allowed the research team to draw more detailed conclusions about the life and times of this giant bird. Their research is published today in historical biology.
Lake Callabonna is “a bit of a megafaunal necropolis,” Jacob Blokland, a paleontologist at Flinders University and co-author of the paper, told Gizmodo in an email. “This site has been on record since the late 1800s, but has probably been part of Aboriginal knowledge for much longer.”
“At this time Genyornis it was considered a ‘crushing bird’ more closely related to the cassowary and emu, so subsequent reconstructions were influenced by that,” Blokland added.
The team’s research shook up those conclusions. The bird’s upper jaw was as tall as a parrot’s, but shaped like a goose (hence its nickname “giga-goose”, as Taylor & Francis nicknamed it release). He had a large brain and capsule, an enlarged bone on the top of his head. Although the animal has been compared to large birds due to its size, recent work has found that the animal was morphologically similar to modern waterfowl such as the South American screamers.
“New skull material for this. Genyornis revealed a goose beak and several special features of the skull that are associated with a bird immersing its skull in water. This bird must have been foraging in the water for at least some time, perhaps eating soft water weeds or new plant shoots. It also has hind limb adaptations for traveling over hard ground and could travel from lake to lake, eat fruit and the like.”
Genyornis it became extinct about 45,000 years ago, meaning it shared the Earth with anatomically modern humans and even Neanderthals (although these were not in Australia). There is no archaeological or anthropological evidence that humans a Genyornis they interacted even though they inhabited the same area at the same time.
“We can’t say for sure why Genyornis became extinct because it is likely a complex interaction of multiple variables,” Phoebe McInerney, a paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia and lead author of the study, told Gizmodo in an email. “However, when the skull shows that these birds are adapted to being in and around water, it suggests that they lived in and relied on a semi-aquatic environment.”
“During time Genyornis was alive, the inland lakes of South Australia were experiencing a dry phase and were slowly transitioning to the salty, dry state they are in today,” McInerney added. “That would probably contribute to it Genyornis it is locally extinct in this area.”
While the cause of his disappearance remains uncertain, the morphology of the bird and its ecological niche are now much clearer. Additional fossils may continue to advance paleontologists’ understanding of this gigantic goose-eater.
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